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Israel Warns Against Unilateral Move on Palestinian Statehood
A senior Israeli official Monday warned that Israel will annex part of the West Bank in response to Palestinian unilateral move on statehood.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's diplomatic and security chief of staff Danny Yatom told Israel Radio if the Palestinians make a unilateral declaration of statehood, Israeli will apply jurisdiction on significant portions of the West Bank, particularly areas heavily populated by the Israelis.
He also said that there will be another summit with the Palestinians.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is on international tour after the breakdown of the latest Palestinian-Israeli peace talks last month at Camp David in the US to rally support for the statehood declaration on September 13.
Israel Radio had quoted senior diplomatic sources here as saying that US State of Secretary Madeleine Albright will visit the region at the end of August to examine chances for holding another summit. US Mideast special envoy Dennis Ross will arrived in the Middle East next week.
The Camp David summit failed to achieve a breakthrough for a comprehensive peace between the two foes. Speculations for a fresh summit have run high recently.
In another development, Knesset (parliament) member Moshe Arens of the opposition Likud party called it an unprecedented scandal if the prime minister could go to another summit to reach an agreement with the Palestinians without the support of the Knesset.
In such a situation, Arens argued that Barak cannot come back with a fait accompli and a signed agreement.
Barak suffered a series of political blows prior to his departure for the US-brokered Camp David summit as three of his coalition partners, the Yisrael Ba'aliya, the National Religious Party and the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, withdrew from his coalition to protest his peace policies.
The ensuing resignation of former Foreign Minister David Levy reduced Barak's government to a shaky minority of 40 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
Following the summit, both Israelis and Palestinians have been trying to drum up international support for their positions in the peace talks.
Reports, in the meantime, predicted that the Palestinians would postpone the statehood declaration scheduled for September 13 as Arafat has reportedly failed to win wide support for the intention.
The Palestine Central Council is set to convene on September 8 or 9 on making a final decision on the issue, Palestinian Radio has reported.
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