PA negotiating chief says talks with Israel in crisis - Haaretz

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Tue., November 13, 2007 Kislev 3, 5768

Israel Time: 03:33 (EST+7)

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PA negotiating chief says talks with Israel in crisis

By Avi Issacharoff

RAMALLAH - The head of the Palestinian negotiating team in the talks with Israel, Ahmed Qureia, says there is a serious crisis between the two sides. Speaking to Haaretz yesterday, Qureia was pessimistic on whether the two sides would reach an agreement because of the way the talks are being carried out.

During a trip to meet the head of the Israeli negotiating team, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Qureia was held up for more than 20 minutes at the Al-Zaim roadblock.

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As a result of the delay yesterday, Qureia told his Israeli counterparts he was cancelling the meeting.

"This is a major insult to me," Qureia said. "This is only one side of the crisis in the negotiations with the Israelis, and we can certainly say that there is currently a genuine crisis in the talks that does not only stem from a delay at a checkpoint."

Qureia - a former Palestinian Authority prime minister - wondered "why should an Israeli police officer stop me at the checkpoint when he knows full well who I am and where I am heading?"

But Qureia declined to give details on the substance of the crisis. "Ask your Foreign Ministry," he said.

Sources close to Qureia say there is a serious disagreement over the implementation of the first stage of the road map. While the PA is demanding the immediate implementation of all aspects of the first stage - including freezing construction in settlements, dismantling illegal outposts and counterterrorist operations by the PA - Qureia's aides say Israel raised new demands during the last meeting with Livni.

The Palestinian sources say Israel is now demanding that the PA first destroy terrorist infrastructure and only then will Israel begin to fulfill its obligations.

Qureia has complained to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Israel is not interested in the road map and that it is delaying a response on forming a tripartite monitoring team. The team would include the Americans to oversee the implementation of the first stage of the road map, and the PA has already agreed to forming such a team.

The Palestinians argue that Israel is also delaying discussions on the final-settlement issues.

A senior Palestinian official told Haaretz that there has not been any energetic involvement by the Americans to soften the Israeli position, "and under such circumstances in which there is no progress on any issue, it does not seem that there is any real point in holding the summit."

Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas flew to Cairo yesterday for a short visit to Egypt, the royal court announced. The two leaders are expected to have talks on the latest peace moves with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other Arab leaders.

Before their departure, the pair held talks that tackled "ongoing efforts aimed at working out an agenda for the Annapolis summit before the end of the year," the statement said. The Jordanian premier also reiterated the need to include the "core issues" on the agenda.

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