there is a distinct possibility that russia might invade ukraine next month. it comes as uk businesses and organisations are being urged to boost their defences in case cyber attacks linked to the conflict over ukraine have an impact here. our diplomatic correspondentjames landale explains the situation. the russian foreign minister said this morning that russia doesn t want war and if it is up to them, but the troop build up continues. the us ambassador said that is the equivalent of man putting a gun on a table and say let s talk peace. the rhetoric is there but the diplomacy continues as well. president macron of france spent an hour on the phone to president putin and he will talk to president zelenskiy who spoke to president biden last night and the german foreign minister spoke to our foreign minister and is talking to her russian counterpart. so talks are continuing. that is the first point.
tensions over ukraine remain high with russia s foreign minister saying his country s interests couldn t be ignored while insisting moscow did not want war. earlier, presidentjoe biden warned there is a distinct possibility that russia might invade ukraine next month. it comes as uk businesses and organisations are being urged to boost their defences in case cyber attacks linked to the conflict over ukraine have an impact here. our diplomatic correspondent james landale explained the current situation. the russian foreign minister said this morning that russia doesn t want war if it is up to them, but the troop build up continues. the us ambassador said that is the equivalent of a man putting a gun on a table and say let s talk peace. the rhetoric is there but the diplomacy continues as well. president macron of france spent an hour on the phone to president putin and he will talk later to president zelensky, who spoke to president biden last night and the german foreign minister s
jewish state. and they have to sit down and negotiate with us, a work able, defense able peace. greta: was that a slip or do you think that is the hamas thinking? hamas don t recognize the right of israel to exist. was that a slip and he made a mistake speaking or do you think underlying all this is he doesn t think israel has the right to exist? i think you should be interviewing him and asking him that question. because i think they walk around this issue all the time. they never just come out and say it. it was very hard for me as a likud leader to speak to my own people and my own constituents. i said as difficult as it is, as deeply attached as i am to every inch of the land of israel, our historic homeland, we have to make some compromises. the it is going to be very painful. but i m prepared to do it. i m willing to set up a palestinian state that lives in peace with israel, providing we have proper security. but i m not prepared to have another iran there.
it is a little bigger than rhode island. we ve had 12,000 rockets lobbed at our cities in recent years can you imagine rhode island sustaining 12,000 rockets and missiles on providence on the towns next to it? unbelievable. so israel has to defend itself. part of peace must be proper security safeguards where israel can defend itself, by itself in order to also defend the peace. i think these are the things that we need to negotiate with the palestinians. so tar they refuse to negotiate. basically so far, they refuse to negotiate. basically relying on the perceived wisdom they don t have to negotiate because israel will always be blamed as not wanting peace. we are prepared to have peace with the palestinian state. the palestinians want basically a palestinian state without peace. so, i think fair-minded people
understand that. and people of israel understand instinctively that the united states is their best friend. greta: you mentioned settlements you put a freeze i think president obama wasn t happy that you lived the freeze. why did you lift the freeze? do you have a conflict with president obama on that? is the freeze still in play? does it have any value at all in trying to move peace forward? palestinians put up this without demanding settlement freeze. i came in, they immediately abandoned it. so i froze it for a year. i nearly froze it for a year, ten months. nine months and one week that this froze they didn t come. finally they came and said we want another freeze. i said why don t we just talk about all the issues, settlements being one. let s talk about peace, border, security, early warning. let s talk about all the things two do to fashion a