Declaring a Palestinian state within weeks

The Palestinian President Yasser Arafat considered that the coming weeks will be the most important and serious ones because a Palestinian state will be declared at the end of it. He said "we have decisive weeks," yet he did not specify a date for this declaration.

Meanwhile, Palestinian sources said the Palestinian president will declare the establishment of a Palestinian state in September even if there were no progress in the negotiations.

Meanwhile, an official in the Palestinian government said the government will not accept the half measures being proposed by Israel, assuring that all the Palestinians adhere to resolution N 242 and that the Palestinian government will not accept less than a fair and full solution for the problem of the refugees and compensating them for damages due to Israeli occupation.