RAMALLAH, West Bank, 29 December 2007 — The head of Palestinian negotiation team Ahmed Qorei yesterday said that Palestinian and Israeli peace negotiators will begin final- status talks next week. Qorei said that peace negotiations had become possible after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to stick to the road map peace plan during a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday.
According to the US-backed plan, Israel is to meet its own obligations such as the evacuation of illegal settlement outposts, a total freeze on all construction in the West Bank including the “natural growth,” and allowing the Palestinians to reopen their institutions in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians were upset over a tender by the Israeli Housing Ministry for the construction of 307 housing units in the southeast Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa in Jabal Abu Ghneim and the allocation of funds in the 2008 Israeli budget for the construction of 240 apartments in the West Bank settlement of Maleh Adumim and 500 new apartments for Har Homa. Two meetings between the Israeli and Palestinians after the Annapolis conference failed to achieve progress due to differences over West Bank settlement activities.
Israel will not undermine negotiations toward a final-status agreement, Olmert promised Abbas on Thursday during their first meeting since the Annapolis conference a month ago.
“Israel will take no steps that would undermine the ability to reach a final-status agreement or that would delay the negotiations,” Olmert said. “Israel will not construct new settlements, will not confiscate land and will evacuate the illegal (settlement) outposts.”
Qorei said the Israeli pledges were satisfactory.
Meanwhile, Palestinian and Israeli sources yesterday said that one Palestinian and two Israelis settlers were killed in separate incidents in the West Bank. The Palestinian sources said that Israeli forces operating in West Bank city of Bitunyah, near Ramallah, killed Mu’tasem Sharif Al-Mahdi. Mahdi was a bodyguard of Qorei.
The Israeli police said two settlers from the Kiryat Arba’ settlement near Hebron were killed by Palestinian fire while out hiking.
