August 22, 2008	Friday	Sha'aban 19, 1429

JERUSALEM, Aug 21: Israel’s chief negotiator said on Thursday a Palestinian uprising could reignite if the international community piled too much pressure on the sides to paper over differences and rush into an agreement on statehood.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sounded the cautionary note against increased US pressure just days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits the region. Rice has been pushing for a deal to cap George W. Bush’s presidency.

Livni, a frontrunner to replace Ehud Olmert as prime minister, compared the current situation to year 2000, when peace talks at Camp David, brokered by then-US president Bill Clinton, collapsed and a deadly uprising erupted.

“I know that there are some expectations ... to do something before the end of the year,” Livni said of Washington’s goal of Israel and the Palestinians reaching a statehood agreement before Bush leaves office in January.

But Livni, speaking in English to foreign reporters, cautioned against outside pressure to try to “bridge gaps that maybe it’s premature to bridge or to reach something which is not the comprehensive agreement that we want to reach”.

“The pressure, the international pressure, this can lead to clashes, this can lead to misunderstandings, this can lead to violence as we had, as we faced, after Camp David 2000 and the circumstances, in a way, are similar,” Livni said.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said pressure from world powers was needed to create the “right atmosphere” for the talks and he accused Livni of “wasting an opportunity to reach a peace agreement”.

US-sponsored peace talks launched last November have shown little sign of progress and have been marred from the start by violence and disputes over Israeli settlement building.

Chances of a deal appeared to fade further when Olmert announced last month that he would step down as prime minister once his centrist Kadima party elected a new leader in September.

Polls show Livni leading the race to replace the corruption-hit Olmert as Kadima chief. —Reuters