- Oct 30, 2000
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But - here it comes
and no preconditions
The Palestinians do not consider anything to be a preconditions but instead obligations.
Give us what we want and then we will talk - same attitude since the beginning.
Palestinians offer to renew Israel peace talks without settlement freeze, official says
The Palestinian leadership submitted a proposal to renew peace talks with with Israel that drops their long-standing demand that Israel ceases all West Bank settlement construction, a top Israeli official said on Wednesday.
But - here it comes
demand Israel releases 100 Palestinian prisoners
and no preconditions
"A freeze of settlement construction, holding negotiations based on the 1967 lines, and the release of prisoners are not preconditions but Israeli obligations, without which we can see no renewal of negotiations with Israel," the top Palestinian negotiator said
The Palestinian leadership submitted a proposal to renew peace talks with with Israel that drops their long-standing demand that Israel ceases all West Bank settlement construction, a top Israeli official said on Wednesday.
According to officials with knowledge of the proposal, the Palestinian Authority informed the Quartet two weeks ago that it would renege on its demand for a settlement freeze if Israel releases 100 prisoners as a show of good will.
The prisoners in question are reportedly all veteran inmates, incarcerated in Israeli prisons since before the Oslo accords.
The Palestinian proposal was reputedly the result of heavy pressure applied by Quartet members the United States, the European Union, Russian, and the United Nations on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to renew talks before January 26.
That date marks the expiration of the three months specified by a Quartet statement in September in which Israel and the Palestinians are to resume talks and present concrete proposals concerning issues such as borders and security arrangements.
Quartet officials especially EU made it clear to the Palestinians that they would bear equal responsibility in the event that the two sides would not resume talks by late January.
With one month to the Quartet deadline, the two sides haven't even held predatory meetings that were supposed to take place two months ago, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's adviser Yitzhak Molcho and top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat were supposed to set the talks agenda.
The Israeli official indicated that Israel rejects the Palestinian offer for two reasons: 1) That is replaces one precondition with another, and 2) since officials say the Palestinian proposal is too vague and did not make it clear whether the prisoners' release will lead to full talks that would include meetings between Netanyahu and Abbas or just the preparatory sessions.
Israel fears that, upon the prisoners' release, and after a few early sessions, the Palestinians will announce new conditions or find new ways to stop negotiations.
It seems at least some of the Israeli trepidation is warranted, since the Palestinains refuse to call the move a "resumption of negotiations," rather defining it as the "talks' renewal," meant to define the guidelines for future peace talks.
In a comment later Wednesday, Erekat denied that the PA offered to resume talks pending a release of prisoners, adding that the Palestinians had no preconditions for peace negotiations.
...
The Palestinians do not consider anything to be a preconditions but instead obligations.
Give us what we want and then we will talk - same attitude since the beginning.