Israel to halt settlement expansion, free prisoners
Updated: 2007-11-19 21:08
Amid a diplomatic push before Annapolis, Olmert was to travel to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday for talks with President Hosni Mubarak, a senior Israeli official told AFP.
Washington called the meeting with the aim of jumpstarting peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians after a seven-year freeze, but expectations about its outcome have sunk amid the stalemate between the two sides.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have held intensive talks in a bid to hammer out a joint declaration outlining a solution to their decades-long conflict which they hope to present at the US talks.
But while they have agreed that the document will address the core issues -- borders, the fate of refugees and the status of the contested city of Jerusalem -- they remain at odds over how detailed any declaration should be.
The statement is to form the basis for final status peace negotiations expected to kick off after the US meeting.
"The main discords right now between us are the timetable following Annapolis for finalising the negotiations and implementing the agreement," a senior Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The Palestinians want a three-way committee, made up of Israelis, Palestinians and Americans, to oversee the implemention of agreements, while Israelis want simply a US official to supervise the process, he said.
And there is disagreement over the sequence in which agreements will be implemented.
The deadlock has raised the possibility that Annapolis will end without a joint declaration, an unnamed senior Israeli official told the Haaretz daily.
"A situation is certainly possible by which there will be no joint declaration and we will have to make do with two separate statements that will be combined in the speeches of the two leaders," the official said.
At Monday's cabinet meeting, Olmert warned against "excessive expectations" and admitted that "there are disagreements" although he said the two sides "should reach agreement on some of the issues" before Annapolis.
"Negotiations will begin after Annapolis and will be very intensive and very serious and will deal with the essentials of the conflict," he added.
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