PNA Approves Mitchell Report Without ReservationsThe Palestinian National Authority (PNA) said on Wednesday that it accepts, without reservations, the report of an international fact-finding team on the causes of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflicts in the occupied Palestinian territories.Palestinian Minister of Culture and Information Yasser Abed Rabou told the "Voice of Palestine" radio that " our stance is positive. We have not any reservations, and we hope that the report will be dealt with and discussed as a full package." He added that "We reject any Israeli attempts aimed at cancelling or removing any parts of the report, particularly those related to the Jewish settlement construction activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the use of excessive force by the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip." The international fact-finding commission, headed by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, was set up to probe the causes of the ongoing Palestinian-Israel violence in accordance with understandings reached at an emergency summit in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh last October. Israel and the PNA handed over on Tuesday their official responses to the Mitchell report so as to be presented to U.S. president George W. Bush, and then to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. |
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