Palestinians: Molcho secret agreement document insignificant
Palestinian sources played down the significance of reports coming from Israel saying that a secret document was drafted between Palestine Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei' and Yitzhak Molcho, the special advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Palestinian state minister and coordinator of talks with Israel, Hassan Asfour, said the Palestinians do not need new agreements with Israel since the Palestinian government "has announced a thousand times its acceptance of the US ideas and it is only Israel that has failed to do so." The US suggested back on March 29 that Israel pull out of 13 percent of the West Bank territories as part of the second redeployment of its troops. Since then, said Asfour, the Palestinian government has been waiting for Israel's acceptance of the initiative in order to move forward on the peace talks track.
Asfour noted that the Palestinian government does not mind receiving any part of land vacated by Israel provided no special status for those lands be imposed on the Palestinians. " We are not against having nature reserves in our areas as long as they are part of order and agreement. Yet, we do not accept areas with new qualifications and names to be imposed on us."
The publication of the agreement, named in Israel as the "Molcho document," has enraged some ministers in Netanyahu's government. Communications Minister Limor Livnat was said to be upset that Netanyahu broke his assurances to the government that no such document had been given to the Palestinian government. Livnat and Netanyahu reportedly had a tough telephone conversation on Monday in which Livnat demanded clarification of reports that such a document had been relayed.
Minutes of the meeting that were published by some Hebrew papers today showed Netanyahu denied both the existence and the content of the document. But Livnat insisted to know whether Netanyahu ever committed himself to a 13 percent withdrawal from the West Bank. Netanyahu told her that he never sent a message of this spirit to the Palestinian government. Aides to Livnat said later on that she felt that Netanyahu had misled her.
At the Cabinet's weekly session on Sunday, Netanyahu sounded totally different. He told his Cabinet ministers that Israel was considering pulling out of 13 percent, depending on the Palestinian agreement to the definition of the disputed 3 percent area and to reciprocity in implementing other parts of the Oslo Accords.
The Israeli acceptance of the 13 percent formula is also conditional to the Palestinian government's acceptance of convening the Palestinian National Council to cancel the national covenant and to carry out further steps to maintain Israel's security.