WASHINGTON The difficulties of achieving a final settlement in the Middle East were highlighted on Thursday after the Israeli prime minister contradicted a statement by Defence Minister Ehud Barak that Israel could meet a Palestinian demand to divide Jerusalem so that the mainly Arab east of the city can become a Palestinian capital.

“The Arab neighbourhoods in which close to a quarter million Palestinians live will be theirs,” Barak told Haaretz newspaper a day before the resumption of peace talks in Washington.

But one of Benjamin Netanyahu's aides immediately contradicted Barak, saying the prime minister's position at the talks will be that the city must remain fully under Israeli control.

“Our position is that Jerusalem will remain the undivided capital of Israel,” the aide said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by saying that two issues — recognition of his country as a Jewish state and arrangements to ensure it does not come under attack from within an independent Palestine state — are key to any deal.

Netanyahu called the two issues the “pillars to peace” at the opening of face-to-face talks with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in Washington.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, launched the negotiations by calling for the two men to show themselves as bold and courageous statesmen and reach a comprehensive peace agreement within the one-year deadline set by Barack Obama.

“We understand the suspicion and scepticism that so many feel borne out of years of conflict and frustrated hopes,” she said. “But by being here today you each have taken an important step toward freeing your peoples from the shackles of a history we cannot change.”

Clinton noted everyone at the negotiating table had been there before, in Netanyahu's case when he was prime minister 14 years ago.

“Those of you here today, especially the veterans who are here, you have returned because you have seen the cost of continued conflict,” she said. “The core issues at the centre of the negotiations — territory, security, Jerusalem, refugees, settlements and others — will get no easier if we wait, nor will they resolve themselves.”

Netanyahu responded by repeating his assertion that he sees Abbas as a “partner for peace”.

“Together we can lead our people to a historic future that can put an end to claims and to conflict. This will not be easy. A true peace, a lasting peace, will be achieved only with mutual and painful concessions from both sides — from my side and from your side,” said Netanyahu

“But the people of Israel, and I as their prime minister, are prepared to walk this road and to go a long way in a short time to achieve a genuine peace that will bring our people security, prosperity and good neighbours.”

However, the Israeli prime minister said there were two issues he regards as central to any agreement “legitimacy and security”.

“Just as you expect us to be ready to recognise a Palestinian state as the nation state of the Palestinian people we expect you to be prepared to recognise Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” he said. “I think this mutual recognition between us is indispensable to clarifying to our two peoples that the conflict between us is over.

“I said too, a real peace must take into account the genuine security needs of Israel ... New forces have risen in our region, Iran and its proxies and the rise of missile warfare (with Hamas attacks from Gaza). A peace agreement must take into account security arrangements against these real threats.

“President Abbas, I'm fully aware and I respect your people's desire for sovereignty. I'm convinced that it's possible to reconcile that desire with Israel's security.”

Abbas responded by noting that his Palestine Liberation Organisation has recognised Israel's legitimacy in earlier accords going back to the 1993 Oslo agreement, although they do not mention it explicitly as a Jewish state. However, diplomats do not believe that will prove a significant stumbling block.

Security may prove more problematic. Among other things, Israel wants to keep control of the border between the West Bank and Jordan, which would mean a Palestinian state there would be entirely surrounded by the Israeli military.

Abbas said he believes a deal is possible. “We're not starting from scratch because we had many rounds of negotiations between the PLO and the Israeli government,” he said.

But the Palestinian leader called for an end to all Jewish settlement construction in the occupied territories. Netanyahu has so far declined to commit himself to extending a partial freeze on building in the settlements in the West Bank, when it expires later this month. The Palestinians see the issue as a litmus test of his intent.

The first issue is to agree an agenda. The US says that all the biggest issues, from drawing final borders and the fate of the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories to Israel's security demands, will be on the table.

Diplomats said they were surprised by the strength of Netanyahu's insistence that he is committed to making an “historic compromise” in search of a durable peace settlement.—Dawn/Guardian News Service