TEL AVIV, Israel, June 23 (UPI) -- Israel's leader told Washington he would resume peace talks based on Israel's 1967 borders if Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Maariv reported.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told senior U.S. State Department adviser Dennis Ross and U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace David Hale he would return to the bargaining table under the terms U.S. President Barack Obama proposed May 19 -- but only if Palestinian leaders recognized Israel as a Jewish state and agreed all refugees would return to a future Palestinian state and not to Israel, sources told Israeli newspaper Maariv.
Obama declared the prevailing borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war -- adjusted to some degree to account for Israeli settlements in the West Bank -- should be the basis of a deal.
The Israeli government originally protested, saying returning to its pre-1967 borders would leave it "indefensible."
But Netanyahu repeated his new offer to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair Sunday after talking to the U.S. officials, Maariv said.
The so-called quartet, working to mediate the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, includes the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia.
None of the countries or organizations said to be involved in the discussions had immediate comments on the report.
After talking with Netanyahu, Ashton took part in a Middle East peace meeting with several Arab representatives, EUobserver reported.
The Sunday dinner meeting, hosted by Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, was attended by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Elaraby, Jordanian and Saudi delegates and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, part of a team negotiating with Israel to establish a Palestinian state.
Also present at the dinner were British Foreign Minister William Hague, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, the newspaper said.
