Israel's defense minister vowed that the Jewish state would make every effort for a peace deal with the Palestinians before undertaking any unilateral steps to set its border in the West Bank.
Israel Radio broadcast the comments by Amir Peretz, the head of the left-of-center Labor Party, on Tuesday, a day after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Israel that any one-sided steps could fuel extremism in the region. "We will, as the prime minister has committed himself to doing, make a sincere, serious and real effort to reach a settlement with the Palestinians before any decision to start the convergence plan unilaterally," Peretz was quoted as saying.
Peretz added his state should end its occupation of the West Bank as soon as possible. "Ruling over another people hasn't done well by us. The sooner we relieve ourselves of this, the better," he said in a speech to a Jerusalem conference on Monday night.
