Israelis, Palestinians Continue Final-Status TalksIsraeli and Palestinian negotiators continued their final-status talks Friday at a secret location in Israel to try to narrow the gaps between the two sides for reaching a framework agreement on final-status issues.Friday's talks have been divided into two groups to discuss specific issues, Israel Radio quoted Israeli government source as saying. One group was attended by Israeli Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei to discuss the issues of Jewish settlements, borders and Palestinian refugees. And chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and his Israeli counterpart Oded Eran joined another group to discuss such issues as security, water and economic cooperation. The two sides had to reach a framework agreement in May, the rescheduled date as the two sides failed to strike such a deal in February under the Sharm el Sheikh memorandum signed last September, but this had been delayed again due to differences on all key issues needed to be solved in the final-status talks. The key issues include the fate of Jerusalem, settlements, borders, Palestinian refugees, water and others. The two sides have to reach a final peace deal on all those issues by September. The two sides resumed the talks in Israel on Thursday at a secret location. Due to slow progress made in the talks, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has urged U.S. President Bill Clinton to put more pressure on Israel to force it to make compromise. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, meanwhile, blamed the Palestinian side for foot-dragging in negotiations. Clinton is sending Secretary of State Madeleine Albright back to the Middle East Next week to try to help narrow the gaps between the two sides. |
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