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Occupied Jerusalem: Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to start drafting sections of a proposed peace accord that address the main issues of their conflict, the chief Palestinian negotiator said.
Ahmad Qorei, the veteran negotiator heading the Palestinian team, made it clear the decision did not necessarily reflect agreement on the major issues that have tormented peace talks for years - final borders, the status of disputed occupied Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
But this would be the first time since negotiations resumed more than six months ago that anything on these divisive questions would be put to paper.
"We agreed with the Israelis to begin writing the positions," Qorei told reporters late on Friday. He did not say what issue the two sides would start with.
Israeli government officials declined to comment.
Should negotiators reach agreement on an issue, they will then draft a single provision, Qorei said. If not, they will lay out on paper their divergent views, he added. Yesterday, he said negotiations were "going through a difficult period" because of tense discussions on occupied Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
Positions drafted during previous rounds of peace talks have not always been preserved for future negotiators.
Qorei confirmed reports that Israeli negotiators have offered the Palestinians land in exchange for territory where major West Bank colonies stand, but he termed their offer "unacceptable".
Also yesterday, Qorei accused Israel of not doing enough to ease the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank.
Senegal: Hamas and Fatah in talks
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has begun talks with representatives of Hamas and Fatah, hoping to establish common ground in the Palestinian factions' approach to Israel, Senegalese state media reported on Saturday.
Wade said at the end of an Organisations of the Islamic Conference summit that he hosted in March that Israel and the Palestinian factions had asked him to mediate between them.
"The head of state of Senegal is talking with the delegates from Hamas and Fatah one after the other," Senegal's official daily Le Soleil quoted Wade's spokesman Al Hadj Amadou Sall as saying of the talks, which the paper said began on Friday. Sall was unavailable for immediate comment yesterday.
- Reuters
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