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Israel,
Palestinians agree to revive peace talks
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March 10, 2000 RAMALLAH,
West Bank, Mar 9: After weeks of acrimonious deadlock, Israel and the
Palestinians agreed Wednesday to resume Intensive peace talks in
Washington later this month aimed at reaching a final settlement in six
months, reports AFP. US
Middle East trouble shooter Dennis Ross made the announcement after
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak
held a breakthrough summit In this West Bank town, their second In less
than 24 hours. "The
parties made good progress In addressing and resolving many of the Interim
Issues and agreed to Intensify their negotiations," Ross said. "Towards
this end they agreed that negotiations would resume after the Eid in
Washington," he told reporters. "The
objective is to achieve a framework agreement as soon as possible so that
all the permanent status issues can be resolved by September 13." Israeli radio said Oded Eran and Yasser Abed Rabbo, who have headed the respective, would lead the negotiations Israeli and Palestinian sides in earlier talks. The
breakthrough came amid continued stalemate in talks with Syria, which said
Wednesday that Israel's announcement it will withdraw occupation troops
from Lebanon by July was not in Itself enough for peace and insisted on a
return of the occupied Golan Heights. It also followed a firm pledge by Arafat on Tuesday to declare an Independent state after the September target date even if there is no peace deal, and warnings from both Palestinian and Israeli officials of an explosion of violence if there is no progress. Barak,
who was elected on a pledge of forging peace with Israel's Arab neighbors
this year, has been struggling for months to keep the two sides afloat. A
Palestinian official had told AFP they had agreed on a new May deadline
for a frame work peace deal and set dates for further Israeli troop with
drawls from the West Bank, with the timetables accompanied by US
guarantees. A
summit between Arafat, Barak and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Is due
to take place on Thursday afternoon In the Egyptian resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh, where a key interim peace deal was signed In September. The
two sides failed to sign a framework peace accord In mid February to
outline solutions to the most sensitive issues in the decades old conflict
including the borders of a Palestinian state and control over Jerusalem. Negotiations
broke down after a previous Arafat-Barak summit in early February failed
to resolve the dispute over a 6.1 percent handover of West Bank land which
was due to take place In January under the terms of last year's Sharm
accord. The
Palestinians had demanded to be consulted about which land was handed
over, but Israel refused, saying It was not obliged to discuss the
transfer and had no Intention of including areas near "The
main issue that was discussed today was the 6.1 per cent," another
Palestinian official said, adding that Israel had agreed to redeploys from
areas outside Ramallah and Bir Zeito and an area southeast of Jersualem. Source: The Daily Star |