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Peres Claims Peace Deal, Erakat Denies, Israeli Aggressions Continue
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Peres
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GAZA
CITY, June 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinian chief
negotiator Saeb Erakat denied Monday any accord with the Palestinians
on creating a Palestinian state, dismissing earlier announcements by
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
"These
remarks have no basis, and there are no contacts or political meetings
between us and the Israeli side," Erakat told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
In
Sofia earlier Monday, Peres said he prepared an accord with the
Palestinians on the creation within eight weeks of a Palestinian state
with provisional borders.
"We
reached an understanding which wasn't approved by the (Israeli)
government and neither was it rejected," Peres said at a press
conference during a visit to Bulgaria.
He
said he made the deal last week with Palestinian representatives,
including parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qorei.
"In
this agreement, we expected the Palestinian state to start in a matter
of eight weeks, without having yet final borders," he added.
But
Peres, who used the past tense to say he reached the deal, did not
clarify if the agreement was still valid.
"I
think this idea has now been spread in the U.S., Egypt and Saudi
Arabia. A provisional state will be provisional on the borders, and
not the state," the Foreign Minister said.
Washington
confirmed last Thursday that it was weighing the possibility of moving
the Middle East peace process forward through a provisional
Palestinian state.
U.S.
President George W. Bush is expected to unveil Monday his long-awaited
"vision" for Middle East peace, after completing
consultations with regional leaders.
Peres
said he did not expect from Bush "a very detailed declaration but
it will clearly include the vision (of) two states for the two
peoples, a Palestinian State (and) an Israeli state."
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Talk of peace, actions of war. |
He
said that a summit aimed at finding a way to end violence in the
Middle East, which Bush is expected to announce, should take place
"by this summer, more specifically by the end of July."
But
he added that "we have no agreement about the place where the
conference will take place, nor on the agenda."
Meanwhile,
the Palestinians expressed reservations about the plan for a
provisional state, while Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a
cabinet meeting Sunday that the conditions were not right.
Egypt
also dismissed the idea of a provisional Palestinian state as
"incomprehensible."
On
the ground, however, Israel continued its incursions of Palestinian
territories, demolishing houses, and assassinations, mindless of any
attempts to reach peace.
Israeli
tanks rolled Monday into the northern West Bank town of Yamoun, near
Jenin, and surrounded and shelled the house of a local resistance
leader, Palestinian security sources said.
Seven
tanks and three army jeeps, backed by two helicopters, entered Yamoun,
firing shells and heavy machine-guns from the ground and air at the
house of Raed Frehat, the sources told AFP.
It
was not clear if the 30-year-old Hamas activist, wanted by Israel, was
at home at the time, the sources said.
The
Israeli army could not immediately confirm the operation but military
sources quoted on Israel's public radio said a booby-trapped car
exploded next to Frehat's house.
The
radio said that the car bomb, which was to be used in an attack inside
Israel, went off when soldiers fired at it, the sources said.
Palestinian
sources confirmed a car explosion in Yamoun, but said it was not next
to Frehat's house. They could not say whether it was a booby-trapped
vehicle.
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