Erekat: Israeli negotiators playing games
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 8/4/1998

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, asked the Palestinian government to stop threatening to halt negotiations with Israel as long as they are serious.

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators continued negotiating over withdrawal from the West Bank between an Israeli optimism and a Palestinian pessimism.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said after today's meeting that these negotiations will be the last and what is being practiced by Israeli negotiators is a game agreed upon with the Israeli prime minister. Many Palestinians have come to see Netanyahu as simply not interested in finding a solution to the Palestine-Israel problem and is playing for time.

Erekat said the Palestinians delivered the negotiators a list with the names of 3,000 prisoners while others claimed that an Israeli release will not exceed 100 prisoners.

US State Department Spokesman James Rubin speaking on this issue said yesterday that he was not sure about the outcome and progress of the recent negotiations. He said "We would like to see the negotiators put specific proposals on the table. We think they should deal with each other with respect and confidentiality and a greater sense of urgency and meet intensively so that they can make sure they've done everything they can to try to reach an agreement. They also, as we've said before, need to make tough decisions. But we want specific proposals on the table that can be dealt with."

The palestinians have accepted the US proposal while the Israel have not. Rubin said "If they put concrete proposals forward, we believe it should be possible to reach an agreement. That's why we think it's so important for specific proposals to be put down on the issues that they are focused on."

Rubin reiteraterated that "If they cannot, we will be forced to conclude that no further progress is possible along these lines and will say so publicly; but we are not at that point yet."

Previous Stories:
  Erekat threatens to halt negotiations if Israel continues to waste time   (8/3/1998)
  Talks resume, no promise seen   (8/3/1998)
  Israel has new scheme for Palestinian territories   (7/29/1998)

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