Canada backs negotiated ME peace settlement | World News |Axisoflogic.com

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government refused Friday to back U.S. President Barack Obama's call for a Middle East peace accord based on borders prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

Obama's proposal was flatly shot down in Washington Friday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that giving up the land seized in the 1967 war would leave Israel "indefensible."

"Peace based on illusions will crash eventually on the rocks of Middle East reality," Netanyahu said during a meeting with Obama in the Oval Office.

Senior Canadian officials, briefing reporters Friday in Ottawa on Harper's attendance at the upcoming G8 leaders summit in France next week, would only say repeatedly that Canada supports a negotiated solution.

"If the two parties are of the view that this is a starting point, that's fine for them," one senior official said at the briefing.

"The president is proposing something. My assumption is that he will or has discussed that with the parties. It's now out there but it's going to be, again, for the parties to decide if that starting point is an acceptable one."

Pressed on Canada's position on the pre-1967 starting point, Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas said he wouldn't speculate.

"No solution ultimately is possible without both parties sitting down, negotiating and agreeing on what that final outcome will look like."

Netanyahu said that while Israel is prepared to make concessions, giving up East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank annexed after the war aren't reasonable.

"We can't go back to those indefensible lines."

Obama's latest attempt to revive talks comes as Palestinians prepare to get the United Nations to unilaterally recognize this autumn a Palestinian state.

The comments from Harper's officials suggest the prime minister's foreign policy, which has always featured ironclad support for Israel, is unlikely to change after his majority government victory this month.

"Our foreign policy has been crystal clear during a minority Parliament and a minority government and I anticipate that it's going to be equally clear now with a majority government," Soudas said while briefing journalists on the G8 summit to be held in the picturesque Normandy coastal town of Deauville.

Officials said the so-called Arab Spring will be a dominant theme at the G8, made up of the U.S., Japan, Russia, Canada, France, Britain, Germany and Italy.

Egypt, as well as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, will be represented at the G8 gathering.

Harper will be pushing Egypt to move toward democracy while protecting the rights of the minority Coptic Christian community, officials said Friday.

The prime minister will also be urging European countries, struggling with an ongoing debt crisis that has left Portugal, Greece and Ireland barely standing, to follow through on commitments to fiscal consolidation made at the G8 Summit last year in Toronto.

Harper is also continuing a practice of adding an extra leg to summit trips, this time with a stop in Athens.

Greece has a tiny and shrinking share of Canada's global trade but, with more than 240,000 Canadians of Greek descent, is an important political constituency in Canada.

Harper, as he did in Ukraine last year, will attend a memorial about 190 kilometres outside Athens dedicated to a major Nazi atrocity. Joining him on the trip will be Treasury Board President Tony Clement, who is of Greek-Cypriot descent.

Other MPs who may join Harper include Costas Menegakis, the new Tory MP for Richmond Hill, Ont., and former head of the Canadian branch of the World Council of Hellenes Abroad, a Greek-Canadian diaspora association.

A number of foreign policy analysts have noted that Canadian prime ministers have increasingly used foreign policy initiatives to win support from key ethnic groups in Canada.

Debt-plagued Greece has a small and shrinking share of Canada's global trade, ranking 74th on the government's list of top trading partners. A little more than $257 million worth of goods was exchanged in 2010 — down from $285 million in 2005.

Greece's fast-growing regional neighbour Turkey is 38th, with $1.6 billion in trade in 2010, up significantly from the $1.1 billion total five years earlier. Turkey is ranked 24th on the list of top export markets for Canadian firms.

There were a little less than 44,000 Canadians of Turkish descent in the 2006 census. Harper has never been to Turkey, though Soudas said the prime minister "looks forward to visiting Turkey."

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