JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to offer the Palestinians a state within temporary borders to break the current negotiations deadlock.
Israeli officials recently have said Netanyahu was “considering” offering a “phased arrangement.” Although that was understood to mean a provisional state, they would not say so directly.
But in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday, Barak said Netanyahu was likely to offer the Palestinians a state with temporary borders. Afterward, he said, the two sides would resolve key issues of the conflict, such as competing claims to Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
No details of the plan were given.
The Palestinians repeatedly have rejected the notion of an interim state.
