Israeli settlement activities on Palestinian lands sabotage peace, PLO secretary says

Wednesday May 07, 2008 14:53 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies

Former Palestinian minister and secretary of the PLO's executive committee believed on Wednesday that underway Israeli settlement activities sabotage the political process.

Yasser Abed Rabo, PLO's Secretary

In a phone interview with the German News Agency, Abed Rabo said that the current issue is that of lands not of the political process, saying that the fate of Palestinian lands determine the progress of negotiations with Israel.

He blamed Israel for what he called ' maneuver and procrastination' when it comes to the fate of such lands, saying that Israel is trying to unilaterally determine the final status of the borders of the territories, involving the Gaza Strip, West Bank and east Jerusalem.

He maintained that the Israeli government continues to tell the world that such settlement activities do not impact underway negotiations with the Palestinians, while in fact they do.

Mark Regev, spokesman of the Israeli government, said yesterday that the latest round of Palestinian-Israeli talks achieved some progress in terms of the final borders of Palestine and Israel.

Regev described the negotiations as the most important since the Washington-sponsored Annapolis peace conference was launched last November.

U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged both parties last week to set their final borders, with major settlement blocs remain under Israeli control.

Palestinians rejected Rice's comments, saying that such settlements lie on occupied Palestinian lands within the boundaries of 1967, on which Washington envisioned a Palestinian state by the end of this year.

ramallah | peace process | news report rami at imemc dot org