Palestinian-Israeli Talks on Deal Implementation Resume

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators are scheduled to reconvene on November 21 in another effort to iron out differences over the Israeli next troops withdrawal from the West Bank.

In a statement to the "Voice of Palestine" radio, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the talks would also deal with the third phase of Israeli redeployment, the release of the third batch of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, the opening of the northern safe passage linking Gaza and the West Bank.

According to the latest Palestinian-Israeli deal, Israel should carry out the second and third troops withdrawal from the West Bank on November 15 and January 20 respectively.

But the second troops redeployment was delayed due to the differences between the two sides over what territory should be transferred to the Palestinians.

The Palestinians demand geographic contiguity and certain Arab populated areas in the West Bank, but the Israel only agreed to relinguish sparsely-populated remote and isolated areas to the Palestinians.

Erekat expressed hope that the talks would reach positive results, emphasizing the readiness of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to fully execute all items in the latest peace deal, the Sharm El Sheikh Memorandum, signed in September.

According to the deal, Israel should have transferred 5 percent of the West Bank land to the Palestinians, with 3 percent from solely Israeli control to jointly rule and 2 percent from joint to full Palestinian jurisdiction.


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