Arafat's political advisor: Netanyahu deceives himself

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's political advisor Marwan Kanafany said that only since Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office have peace negotiations not been able to pass through deadlocks the way they passed through many deadlocks during the government of Shimon Peres, even though Peres rejected the Israeli withdrawal from Hebron and refused the redeployment and the release of the Palestinian detainees.

He clarified that stopping the negotiations and linking them with other conditions is not the solution, the solution is continuing to work to achieve stability inside the Palestinian self-rule areas and to continue building the Palestinian state and to expand its foreign relations.

He added that Palestinians hope that the current negotiations in Washington will lead to the application of the Oslo agreement as the Palestinians are serious about the agreement and its implementation.

Kanafany accused the Israeli Premier of talking about everything while he is actually continuing his settlement policy, confiscating lands and refusing to implement international agreements. He allocated $300 million to the settlement policy for the next year which proves that he still deceives everybody, including himself, Kanafany said.