Palestinian Speaker Sets Terms for Returning to Talks

Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmed Qurei on Wednesday set terms for the Palestinians to return to the peace talks with Israel.

While outlining those terms, Qurei, also known as Abu Ala, reiterated demand for Israel to implement relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, reports reaching here from the West Bank city of Ramallah said.

Abu Ala told reporters that the conditions include:

- Israel's pullout from the Palestinian villages, towns and cities;

- The withdrawal of Israeli forces to their positions held before September 28;

- The formation of a U.N. fact-finding committee to probe the Israeli aggressions against the Palestinians;

-Holding Israel responsible for the violence and forcing it make good the damage it inflicted on the Palestinian people and economy;

- And restructuring the basis for the talks so that they could be held on equal footing between the two parties.

"The rules of the game have changed and the international legitimacy resolutions must be enacted," the top legislator said.

On Tuesday evening, a White House spokesman said that U.S. President Bill Clinton had proposed to invite Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to hold separate talks with him provided the both sides deliver on their pledges at the Sharm el Sheikh summit in Egypt.

At the summit on October 17, Arafat and Barak agreed to take concrete steps to stop the violence on either side, promote security cooperation, investigate the clashes, and return to the negotiating table to salvage the faltering Mideast peace process.

The peace process as a whole faces a real deadlock as Israel does not respect any of the interim or final-status agreements, said Abu Ala.

"The Israelis act according to occupation mentality and power politics," he said.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian official urged the United Nations, the European Union (EU) and the international community as a whole to provide international protection to the Palestinian people, and work for the implementation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1322 on the formation of a fact-finding committee.

He also called on EU, Russia and China to a play greater role in helping Israel and the Palestinians resume the peace process.

However, he said the Palestinian resistance would continue till Israel complies with the international legitimacy and ensures the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

On the Palestinian statehood declaration, he said that the issue would be decided on by the Palestinian Central Council during its coming meeting. "I don't want to make premature assumptions," he added.

Asked about the formation of an Israeli emergency government, Abu Ala said it was an Israeli internal affair.

"Barak came to power through a peace platform. However, we see him waging fierce war at present," said the Palestinian official, expressing pessimism about the Barak administration.

"The current confrontations are not a security problem. Rather, they are a political one. Israel made it clear that what it can not achieve through negotiations would be achieved by force. It talks with cannons, tanks, missiles and warplanes," he added.

"Such Israeli policy will prove a failure. The Palestinian people sent a clear message to the whole world: We will never yield our sanctities or rights," he stressed.



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