Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday welcomed an offer for New Zealand peacekeepers to contribute in the Middle East if a peace settlement was reached, Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said.
Mr Goff made the offer to Mr Arafat during a meeting in New York.
"I said that I believed New Zealand would want to make a contribution to a peacekeeping force between Israel and Palestine once the peace agreement had been signed.
"Arafat welcomed that very enthusiastically, saying that he thought with our record in peacekeeping and our even-handed approach, New Zealand was well-placed to make that contribution to an international cause."
But Mr Goff said there was some way to go before that point was reached.
"If I thought you could reach a peace agreement in the Middle East between now and November next year, when we substantially downscale our presence in East Timor, I would be very happy indeed.
"I suspect the process will take longer than that ... so there wouldn't be that overlap."
New Zealand already had 33 defence staff in the Middle East and a peacekeeping force could be made up to whatever scale New Zealand could cope with at the time, he said.
Mr Goff said he told Mr Arafat of the importance New Zealand attached to finding a solution to the Middle East conflict.
Mr Arafat had spoken "disparagingly" of Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, Mr Goff said.
"He literally used the terms ... that they were wrapping themselves in the cloak of the Palestinian cause but their actions were damaging to the cause and were unwelcome by the Palestinian authority."
Mr Arafat had said the United States needed to play an increased role for a peace settlement to be reached.
"He said both Europe and Russia were strongly in favour of pressure being placed on Israel for it to show flexibility in reaching a peace agreement, but that the United States needed to do more in that regard."
Mr Goff said he thought it would require "goodwill and flexibility" on both sides to achieve peace.
New Zealand's position had been to condemn violence by either side.
"But we've always had the position that for peace to be arrived at, Israel must be prepared to meet the UN resolution to withdraw to its 1967 borders on the basis that those borders must be secure and recognised," Mr Goff said.
"The key obstacle to achieving peace is the ongoing settlement of the occupied land by the Israelis - they now have ... 380,000 settlers on land that does not legally belong to Israel."
- NZPA
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