Israel’s foreign minister on Wednesday said that Israel would not cave in to foreign dictates on its treatment of the Palestinians — in comments that came in a meeting with his Norwegian counterpart coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Oslo peace accords.
The remarks by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen underscored the deterioration of Mideast peace efforts since the historic interim peace deal.
“Israel will not submit to external dictates on the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Cohen said in the meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, according to a statement from his office.
Cohen told Huitfeldt that Israel will continue to work toward normalizing relations with other countries in the Middle East. Israel reached diplomatic accords with four Arab countries under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020 and is now hoping to establish official ties with Saudi Arabia.
But in an apparent reference to the Palestinians, who have criticized the Abraham Accords, Cohen said “states and actors that don’t participate in expanding and deepening the circle of peace and normalization will simply be left behind and become irrelevant.”
Huitfeldt described her meeting with Cohen as “interesting.”
According to her office, she expressed her concern to Cohen over Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The two also discussed the possibility of renewing Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, she said.
Cohen’s rejection of international input on the conflict came exactly three decades after Israel and the Palestinians signed an interim peace deal on the White House lawn.
The Oslo accords, negotiated secretly in Norway, were meant to pave the way to a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
(AP)
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From the Yarmer Badchen:
What happens when a fly falls into a coffee cup:
* The Englishman – throws the cup and walks away.
* The American – takes out the fly and drinks the coffee.
* The Chinese – eats the fly and throws away the coffee.
* The Japanese – drinks the coffee with the fly because it is a free addition.
* The Israeli – sells the coffee to the American and the fly to the Chinese, and buys himself new coffee.
* The Palestinian – accuses the Israeli of violence against him and of throwing the fly into his coffee, asks for assistance from the United Nations, takes a loan from the European Union to purchase new coffee, and uses the money to purchase explosives. Then he blows up the cafe where the English, the American, the Chinese and the Japanese with the Israeli… who try to explain to the Israeli that he is too aggressive!