Palestinian call to convene five-member Arab summit for coordination before the final negotiations

The delegate of the Palestinian Authority, PLO executive committee member Yasser Amro, has called for convening a "five-member summit" with the objective of "maintaining coordination" with Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt before the final status negotiations with Israel, especially in matters pertaining to refugees, water, settlements and Jerusalem.

Amro told the AFP following his meeting with the secretary general of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Nayef Hawatemah, in Damascus on Wednesday: "We are not closed. We like to establish relations with all, and we need joint coordination and agreement between us and each of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt concerning common issues among us before holding negotiations with Israel in matters relating to the refugees, water, settlements and Jerusalem. Therefore, we have called for a five-member Arab summit."

Amro stressed that the Syrian-Israeli negotiations "do not obstruct the Palestinian negotiations but help us in our talks with Israel, and every success on the Syrian track is a success for Palestine. And we are with the return of the Golan to the June 4, 1967 border line as well as the occupied Lebanese territories."

Hawatemah said, "Palestinian conditions are now in great bottleneck," and the Palestinians have to make a comprehensive and critical revision aiming at rearranging the Palestinian house, to a comprehensive dialogue and the unity of the PLO groups so as to come up with a united Palestinian work paper to all Arabs, peoples and states and to the whole world. Hawatemah added, "Amro's role is to establish a bridge between the Palestinian case and Syria and to coordinate between the two sides."

Amro arrived in Damascus on Wednesday morning coming from Gaza in a visit to Syria which will last for two days.