(Haaretz).The Obama Administration will put forth new peace initiatives only if Israel wants it to, said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in his first comprehensive interview on foreign policy since taking office.
"Believe me, America accepts all our decisions," Lieberman told the Russian daily Moskovskiy Komosolets.
Lieberman granted his first major interview to Alexander Rosensaft, the Israel correspondent of one of the oldest Russian dailies, not to an Israeli newspaper. The role of Israel is to "bring the U.S. and Russia closer," he declared.
During the interview, Lieberman said Iran is not Israel's biggest strategic threat; rather, Afghanistan and Pakistan are.
This comes after years of Lieberman warning about the growing Iranian threat. Now, he has dropped Tehran to number two, with Iraq coming third.
Lieberman also discussed Moscow's under-utilized role in the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and said he aims to correct this. The newspaper emphasized Lieberman's intention to develop closer ties with Russia and to resolve international issues jointly.
"Russia has a special influence in the Muslim world, and I consider it a strategic partner that should play a key role in the Middle East," Lieberman said in the interview.
"I have argued for some time that Israel has insufficient appreciation for the 'Kremlin factor'; I intend to mend this gap," he said.
Political sources in the Commonwealth of Independent States have told Haaretz that they believe Lieberman's appointment will result in "greater understanding" between Israel and Russia.
Regarding his changing view on Israel's greatest threats, Lieberman said that since he began warning against the nuclear threat from Iran, nuclear threats have become more prevalent. Meanwhile, a more urgent problem has developed in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"Pakistan is nuclear and unstable, and Afghanistan is faced with a potential Taliban takeover, and the combination form a contiguous area of radicalism ruled in the spirit of Bin Laden," Lieberman said.
"I do not think that this makes anyone in China, Russia or the U.S. happy ... these countries [Pakistan and Afghanistan] are a threat not only to Israel, but to the global order as a whole."
In response to a question on Israel's role in countering these threats, Lieberman said, "Our role is that we should bring the U.S. and Russia closer ... it is unclear to me why the U.S. needs to confront Russia on Kosovo or Ukraine's entry to NATO; however, Russia needs to understand that close cooperation with Hugo Chavez does not build western confidence."
Later in the interview, the foreign minister spoke unkindly of the road map, which he called binding, unlike the Annapolis process, in his view. The Palestinians "are not very familiar with the document," he said. Lieberman called a two-state solution a nice slogan that lacks substance.
