line foreign minister said Tuesday that there was “no chance” a Palestinian state would be established by 2012 – a message that threatened to cloud the latest visit by Washington's Mideast envoy. The comments by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman drew swift Palestinian condemnations and could put Israel at odds with the international community, which has set a 2012 target for brokering a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. “As an optimist, I see no chance that a Palestinian state will be established by 2012,” Lieberman said at a news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “We can express interest, we can dream, but in reality, we are still far from reaching understandings and agreements on establishing an independent state by 2012.” Russia, along with the US, European Union and United Nations, make up the “Quartet” of Mideast negotiators – an international group that has spent nearly a decade trying to forge a peace agreement.
