RAMALLAH, West Bank: Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei said yesterday that there can be no peace between the Palestinians and Israel as long as Jewish settlement activities continue in the West Bank.
Qorei said in a press statement: “The continuation of settlement activities and expanding the existing blocks threaten the entire peace process.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged at the US-sponsored Annapolis conference to reach a comprehensive peace deal that tackles all core issues — sovereignty over Jerusalem, settlements, Palestinian refugees and the final borders — before the end of US President George W. Bush’s term. But the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and clashes between the two sides prevented any tangible progress.
Qorei reiterated that “the settlers and their settlement blocks would have no room in any upcoming solution.”
He also stressed that the Palestinian Authority will not sign any political agreement with Israel that may “exclude Jerusalem as the eternal capital of a Palestinian state.”
On Friday, Qorei reportedly rejected an Israeli offer to annex 6.8 percent of the West Bank to Israel as part of a lasting settlement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
