“Signing agreements doesn’t make peace … The only lasting agreements are the fair ones”, veteran Palestinian peace negotiator Sa’eb Erekat said at a press conference in East Jerusalem today.
He said he was under oath not to speak about or disclose the details of the current negotiations.
“What I said is that what needs to be done is to take decisions … What is needed are decisions, not negotiations”, Erekat said.
“U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is coming in two weeks, and American diplomats are on the phone every hour. But now it’s the moment of truth — It’s either settlements or peace”.
“President Bush has no right to discuss with Israel ceding some territory in Palestine. He can cede New Mexico, maybe, but not here”, Erekat said. “One day in 1995, Jordan decided to cede 29,000 square kilometers [to Israel, in the context of their peace treaty]. We’re different”.
“Without giving me the percentage of [territorial] swaps”, Erekat said, “there will be no agreement”.
But “with the percentage of agreed swaps, you’ll get an agreement in three months”, Erekat said. “The end game is defined and the rest is all technicalities, and if you settle them, you’ll get a treaty of 1,000 pages in three months”.
No further details were given.
For more, see Wednesday’s post on Palestine-Mandate here .
nice
he seems a master not just of the short sound bite
but of cutting to the chase in every way
encouraging
In animal farm there was this saying:
all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.