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Jerusalem (AFP) May 9, 2011 President Shimon Peres said he favours recognition of a Palestinian state if it takes into account Israel's security needs, in an interview published on Monday. Speaking to the Jerusalem Post newspaper, Peres said the Palestinian bid to seek UN recognition of an independent state based on 1967 borders would not end the conflict if it was not linked to his country's security needs. "I'm in favour of recognising them provided they recognise Israel's security needs," he told the English-language daily. "Going to the UN solely with a declaration of statehood, without giving an answer to Israel's security concerns -- that will mean a continuation of the conflict, not an end to the conflict," he said. Peres, who was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 as an architect of the Oslo Accords on Palestinian autonomy, said there would be no breaking the impasse in negotiations while everything was being dragged into the public eye. "In negotiations, there are starting positions and ending positions, but because it is public, each side is adopting its maximalist positions," he said in a separate interview with Maariv newspaper. "If these were private talks ... it would be possible to argue and be flexible, but when the conditions are public, it is impossible to move forward," he said. Direct talks between the two sides stalled last September in an intractable dispute over Jewish settlement building, with the Palestinians refusing to talk while Israel builds on occupied land they want for a future state. Peres said only "a short path" was left to reach peace and he was optimistic that an agreement could be reached. Israel, the president said, must work to delineate boundaries that would see the Jewish state incorporate the main settlement blocs and protect its security interests. "We only have to determine where the three blocs will be in quiet negotiations," he said. "The Palestinians say that they want the territory of 1967, not the borders, the territory," he said, referring to the 1967 Six-Day War during which Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "And we want an agreed-upon land swap that is intended to both leave the blocs and to meet Israel's security needs," Peres said. "That is the heart of the negotiations ... I believe that it can be bridged."
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