Palestine warns of peace process collapse

Palestine warned of the near collapse of the middle east peace process and of the return of instability and lack of security in the region.

The Palestinian leadership said this risk is due to backtracking by Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, on carrying out all the earlier signed agreements for "baseless justifications."

A statement issued by the Palestinian leadership after its weekly meeting on Friday, headed by president Yasser Arafat, said that the peace process has "reached an unprecedented serious crisis."

The statement added that it was decided to highlight the crisis to the states sponsoring the peace process, after Barak's government revealed its real intents on Al Quds (Jerusalem) and its refusal to withdraw to the June 4, 1967 borders, as well as its persistence to keep Jewish settlements in the occupied lands, in total violation of all the U.N. resolutions.

The statement also deplored Barak's government adamant settlement policies and plans, as it the peace process "is a public relations game."

The crisis surfaced after Barak refused to make serious changes in the timetable and attempted to impose an Israeli formula for his troop pullout from 6.1% of the west bank territories, beside merging the third phase of redeployment with the final settlement and stalling on obligations to reach a framework agreement.