adminJERUSALEM. — Israel’s chief peace negotiator said yesterday that the last group of Palestinian prisoners will not be freed unless a peace framework agreement was found. “The prison keys are in the hands of (Palestinian President) Mahmoud Abbas and the decisions he makes over the next few days,” Tzipi Livni, also Israel’s justice minister, said.
The negotiator said Israel never had an “automatic commitment” to releasing the prisoners, adding that their release was dependent on the progress of the talks.
The fourth and final batch of Palestinian prisoners are scheduled to be released by the end of March. It’s part of an agreement between Israel and Palestinians to resume peace talks last summer.
Earlier yesterday, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel might not carry out the pledged prisoner release due to the standstill in peace talks. He connected the standstill to “Abbas’ refusal to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state.” — Xinhua.
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