US Unhappy with Barak's New Peace PlanWashington has expressed reservations about Prime Minister Ehud Barak's new plan for a "phased peace agreement" with the Palestinians, Israel Radio reported Friday, December 1.The radio quoted a senior US official in Washington as saying that the US preferred a final settlement that deals with all the major issues like final borders, future of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements and fate of the Palestinian refugees. But the official said that Washington welcomed the news of a possible meeting between Barak and Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Yasser Arafat in Cairo or Amman to reopen the Israeli-Palestinian final-status talks, the radio added. Barak announced Thursday that he would seek an interim agreement with the Palestinians in the days to come and defer the settlement of the Jerusalem issue and return of Palestinians refugees to one to three years. In the framework of such an interim deal, Barak said he would be willing to recognize a Palestinian state and transfer another 10 percent of the West Bank land to the Palestinians so that there would be territorial continuity between Jerusalem and those areas of the West Bank under the PNA control. PNA officials on Thursday expressed no interests in negotiating along the lines of Barak's interim agreement proposal. PNA negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians categorically rejected Barak's proposal to negotiate a final-status deal in stages, saying the time has come to discuss the unresolved issues such as Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. Under the Sharm el Sheikh peace deal reached in September 1999, Israel till the end of March carried out a three-stage troop redeployment in the West Bank, transferring 18.1 percent of the West Bank land to the PNA. But under the Oslo accord signed in 1993, Israel has to transfer all the remaining West Bank land to the PNA in the final troop withdrawal. |
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