Palestinian leadership accuses Israel of blocking the establishment of the country

The Palestinian leadership accused the Israeli government of conducting a strong campaign to impose the accomplished fact and blocking the way before the establishment of an independent Palestinian country with its capital Jerusalem.

In a statement following the end of its weekly meeting last night in Ramallah under the chairmanship of the Palestinian President Arafat, the leadership said that "the serious readiness from the Palestinian side for serious negotiations to implement the resolutions of the international legitimacy is confronted by a continuous procrastination from the Israeli side to waste time."

Arafat referred that after 33 negotiating sessions with the Israeli negotiator Gelad Sheer after the second Camp David - the answer was that the Israeli side is not authorized and does not have potentialities and that he considers these sessions for exchanging the points and not for the negotiation'.