Palestinians ask US to move to save the peace process

The Palestinian leadership renewed its call for the international parties concerned with the peace process to put an end to the current halt in the peace process and to get Israel to implement agreements it halted.

The Palestinian leadership stated in its meeting last night in Galilee under the chairmanship of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat that the Israeli government resumed its challenge to international UN resolutions by freezing the Wye River agreement under the pretext of the Israeli elections.

Map reported that Arafat said Friday that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is an international and not a Palestinian decision.

In his inaugural address at the first constituent conference of Fatah in the West Bank City of Al Khalil, the Palestinian leader said the date for the Israeli elections was set after the date set to declare the Palestinian State on May 1, Map reported.

According to the 1993 Oslo Peace accords, which granted the Palestinians self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinian state would be established in May 1999 after the end of a five-year transitory period.