Talks in vain without halt in settlements, say Palestinians
Palestine, Politics, 7/24/1997

Despite a flurry of Israeli-Palestinian meetings, a senior Palestinian official said that peace efforts will be in vain unless Israel stops building Jewish settlements.

"Real progress will happen when we hear Israel is stopping settlements and implementing the peace agreement as signed," Saeb Erekat said after meeting US officials in Washington.

Israeli assessments of the prospects for ending the impasse were more upbeat in the wake of recent meetings, including one in Brussels between Yasser Arafat and Israeli foreign minister David Levy on July 22.

"Contacts are being maintained and negotiations conducted on some levels," said David Barillan, a top aide to prime minister Netanyahu.

Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, also rejected Israeli suggestions to skip the next stage of Israeli troop withdrawals from the West Bank.

Israeli officials say they would prefer to put off the next planned pullback from the West Bank, scheduled for this autumn, to avoid a quarrel over the size of the withdrawal and instead focus attention on the big issues such as the future status of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements, and borders.

Israeli media reports said US proposals include a trade-off in which Israel agrees to a six month freeze on building settlements while Palestinians agree to delay the West Bank pullback and begin talks on final-status issues.

Palestinian statements were markedly cooler than those after the Arafat-Levy meeting. Levy, appearing with Arafat at a news conference, said he was "highly satisfied," and Arafat said that the talks were positive.

In addition to the Levy-Arafat meeting, Israeli cabinet secretary Danny Naveh held talks in Washington on July 22 and Israeli president Ezer Weizman met Mahmoud Abbas, the number one in the PLO.

Talks broke down in March when Israel went ahead with plans to develop a Jewish enclave on Jebel Ghneim.

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