JERUSALEM — Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman declared Wednesday that his nation's new government would not be bound by a U.S.-backed understanding to work toward establishing a Palestinian state.
His remark outraged Palestinian leaders and highlighted sharp disagreement between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the Obama administration.
Netanyahu has long opposed the idea of a sovereign Palestinian state. Taking office late Tuesday, the conservative leader struck a somewhat conciliatory tone, offering instead to work for a permanent agreement on limited Palestinian self-rule.
Lieberman's speech, his first as Israel's top diplomat, was blunt and openly hawkish. The ultranationalist foreign minister warned against broad concessions to the Palestinians, saying they "only bring pressure and more wars."
He dismissed a formal declaration, made at a 2007 Israeli-Palestinian peace conference, that committed both parties to further "the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine." President George W. Bush held the conference in Annapolis, Md., and brokered the statement by then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
"It has no validity," Lieberman said of the declaration. "The Israeli government never ratified Annapolis, nor did parliament."
Nabil abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for Abbas, said Lieberman's statement represents a threat to the region's stability. He said the Obama administration "should take a clear position against this policy before things get worse."
Later, a U.S. official told reporters accompanying President Obama to the G-20 summit in London, "It remains our view that a two-state solution . . . is in our interests and the region's interests." Last week the president said advancement toward that goal is "critical."
At a ceremony hours before Lieberman's speech, Israeli President Shimon Peres reminded Netanyahu and his Cabinet that "the majority of countries in the world" back the Palestinian quest for statehood -- a hint that Israel faces isolation.
Netanyahu has privately assured Western officials that he, not his outspoken foreign minister, will set Israel's foreign policy. Lieberman was given the job because Netanyahu needed his Israel Is Our Home party, which finished strong in Feb. 10 elections, to assemble a majority coalition in parliament.
