LOC20:03
17:03 GMT
LONDON, Feb 12 (KUNA) -- The recent events in Egypt and Tunisia could
complicate the quest for a peace deal, British Foreign Secretary William Hague
warned Saturday.
Hague told the BBC that time was running out for an agreement based on a
two-state solution, Palestine and Israel living side-by-side in peace and
security.
He also called on both Israelis and Palestinians to return to the direct
talks which they broke off last September and on Israel to stop settlement
activities on occupied Palestinian lands.
"Perhaps one of the good things that might come from events in Egypt and
Tunisia is that policymakers in Israel and among Palestinians will be jolted
to see that it is vital now to take this forward because in a few years time a
two-state solution will be much, much more difficult to achieve," he said.
"There is some life in it but it is on life support and it will not live
for many more years. The Israelis are making settlements in occupied territory
steadily changing the nature of the area and there is a growing weariness
about the whole approach to the two-state solution."
Israel in particular had seen former president Hosni Mubarak as a
stabilizing force in the region as the guarantor for the past 30 years of the
historic Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.
Hague insisted however that they should not fear the rise of democracy in
the Arab world.
"What we should be afraid here of is not democracy but uncertainty and
instability that can make national leaders more cautious and say that we are
only going to deal with one thing at a time," Hague concluded. (end)
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