Israel's Lieberman heads to US as peace talks falter

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will fly to the US tomorrow for talks including with Secretary of State John Kerry amid a crisis in peace talks with the Palestinians.
Lieberman's office said in a statement today he would be in New York tomorrow to meet Mayor Bill de Blasio and American Jewish leaders.
On Sunday he is due to speak on Israel-US relations and the peace talks at a conference in New York.
In Washington he will meet congressional leaders at Capitol Hill on April 8 and have talks with Kerry the following day, it said.
Kerry has been conducting more than a year of intensive shuttle diplomacy trying to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace, but talks hit crisis this week after Israel announced a fresh wave of settlement tenders and the Palestinians resumed moves to seek international recognition for their promised state.

In February, Lieberman -- head of the hardline nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party -- sprang to Kerry's defence after he came under fire from other Israeli ministers after warning that the Jewish state faced growing delegitimisation if negotiations with the Palestinians collapsed and referring to "talk of boycotts".

"We don't agree with Kerry over everything, but he is a true friend of Israel," Lieberman said at an economic forum.
Lieberman, a harsh critic of the Palestinian leadership and campaigner for Israeli Arabs to take an oath of allegiance or be stripped of their citizenship, has in the past been a less than welcome visitor in Washington.

But his February remarks were welcomed by State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki.
"It certainly is a powerful statement and a powerful message given his history and his background on these issues and where his view was," she said at the time.