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TITLE: Israelis, Palestinians Report 'Promising' Negotiations |
AUTHOR: Laurie Copans |
PUB: Associated Press |
DATE: January 26, 2001 |
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TABA, Egypt (AP) - Israeli and Palestinian teams failed to make a breakthrough in peace talks Friday, but said negotiations looked "promising" as the sides undertook one of most difficult issues - the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees. Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath reported "fruitful and very serious" talks, saying the sides were close on the issues of security and borders of a future Palestinian state. "This is real negotiations, not posturing," he said. On the Israeli side, negotiator Yossi Sarid, also was pleased with the talks, saying: "The talks went quite all right.... There was nothing dramatic, but it's a gradual promising process." Formal talks at this Red Sea resort adjourned over the Jewish Sabbath that started Friday, but the Israelis said they will play host to Palestinian delegates at a dinner Friday and will continue with informal discussions Saturday in Eilat, an Israeli town just across the border. The Taba talks are likely to end early next week and are unlikely to produce a full agreement, negotiators said. The sides are trying to achieve at least an outline of a peace deal before Israel's Feb. 6 election. Any progress, however, could be nullified if Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is defeated by his hard-line opponent, Ariel Sharon. Sharon, who maintains a double-digit lead over Barak, rejects Barak's compromise offers to the Palestinians and says he would not honor any agreement Barak reaches before the election. Barak has said talks will end several days before the vote, and his negotiators promised Friday to bring any deal to parliament and a national referendum. "Officially it is not binding," admitted Israeli negotiator Yossi Beilin. However, any agreement "will become a reference point at least for the future," he maintained. At the talks Friday, Shaath and Beilin were discussing the formidable refugee question. The Palestinians have been demanding that all refugees and their descendants, about 4 million people, be allowed to return to Israel, but Israel has rejected that. There has been progress on various aspects of the refugee issue. But the crux, the main issue of the right of return and its practical implementation and the mechanisms, we still want to do it," Shaath said. Other working groups were dealing with Jerusalem, borders and security matters. Shaath said the two sides were close to a deal on the borders of a Palestinian state. He said Israel would get about 4 percent of the West Bank, and the Palestinians would receive some Israeli territory in return. Solution of the West Bank border issue would imply agreement about the Jewish settlements, as well. In public up to now, the Palestinians have been demanding a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and removal of all the settlements. The sides were much further apart on the refugee question and Jerusalem, where Israel is reluctant to give the Palestinians full control over the city's eastern Arab part that includes Jewish neighborhoods and sites holy to both Judaism and Islam. "We don't have anything which could be called a breakthrough yet," Shaath said. The talks had reconvened Thursday after a two-day suspension, Israel's response to the killing of two Tel Aviv restaurateurs by masked gunmen in the West Bank. When an Israeli motorist was gunned down hours after the talks resumed, Israeli negotiators broke off a session, but Barak instructed them to resume the negotiations. The violence continued Friday. Palestinian medics said 49 people were injured in stone-throwing clashes with the Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Barak's office said security forces have captured six members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 responsible for the shooting deaths of six Israelis, including Binyamin Kahane, son of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, and his wife Talia. Since violence erupted Sept. 28, 375 people have been killed, including 318 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs, 43 Israeli Jews, and one German doctor. END |