WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's letter will be considered fully

Record ID: 344201

  • Title: WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's letter will be considered fully
  • Date: 14th May 2012
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (MAY 13, 2012) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR SAEB EREKAT SPEAKING WITH REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR SAEB EREKAT SAYING: "President Mahmoud Abbas received a special envoy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Isaac Molcho, who delivered a written letter, response to President's Abbas letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu. The President discussed extensively with the Israeli envoy the issue of the prisoners, he demanded that their suffering be ended through carrying out their demands of family visits, medication, health care." CAMERAMAN DURING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATOR SAEB EREKAT SAYING: "Today the Executive Committee of the PLO will convene in a meeting, this meeting will be followed by a meeting with the Fatah Central Committee to discuss the letter and the whole Israeli-Palestinian relations and the whole futuristic steps and the basis of what will be discussed and decided by the leadership. Also we called many of our Arab brothers, especially Qatar, the head of the Follow-Up Committee, and we requested a meeting for the Follow-Up Committee in the next few days." MORE OF EREKAT AND REPORTER JERUSALEM (MAY 13, 2012) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ENTERING WEEKLY CABINET MEETING NETANYAHU LEADING MEETING SHAUL MOFAZ, WHO HAS JOINED A NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT LAST WEEK WITH HIS KADIMA PARTY NETANYAHU SPEAKING DURING MEETING (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYING: "Last night my special envoy, Isaac Molcho, met with the Palestinian Authority chief, Mahmoud Abbas. I hope we can push forward the dialogue between the sides in order to renew negotiations." MORE OF CABINET MEETING UZI LANDAU, ISRAELI INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER, SPEAKING WITH REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) UZI LANDAU, ISRAELI INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER, SAYING: "There is no special explorations just over there. That's a part of Israel and if there will be those who will be interested to explore all over the country, we are not making any differences." LANDAU SPEAKING WITH WOMAN
  • Embargoed: 29th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAB7U1FELJ8DXCU4CZ2FOGO832G
  • Story Text: Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Sunday (May 13) briefed reporters regarding a letter sent to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
    "President Mahmoud Abbas received a special envoy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Isaac Molcho, who delivered a written letter, response to President's Abbas letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu," Erekat told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
    "The President discussed extensively with the Israeli envoy the issue of the prisoners, he demanded that their suffering be ended through carrying out their demands of family visits, medication, health care," Erekat added, referring to 1,600 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails.
    Several of the prisoners reached the 76th day of their hunger strike on Sunday.
    "Today the Executive Committee of the PLO will convene in a meeting, this meeting will be followed by a meeting with the Fatah Central Committee to discuss the letter and the whole Israeli-Palestinian relations and the whole futuristic steps and the basis of what will be discussed and decided by the leadership. Also we called many of our Arab brothers, especially Qatar, the head of the (Arab League) Follow-Up Committee, and we requested a meeting for the Follow-Up Committee in the next few days," Erekat outlined.
    Late on Saturday (May 12) Israeli envoy Isaac Molcho met with Abbas, carrying a letter from Netanyahu, replying to one he received last month from Abbas, in which the Palestinian leader stated his grievances over the collapse of peace talks in 2010 and laid out his parameters for a resumption of negotiations.
    Details of Netanyahu's letter were not released, but Israeli officials said last week that they did not expect him to accept a key Palestinian demand to halt all settlement building in the occupied territories before reopening any talks.
    "I hope we can push forward the dialogue between the sides in order to renew negotiations," Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday in Jerusalem.
    Abbas's letter had demanded a halt to Israeli settlement construction on West Bank land captured in the 1967 Middle East war and accused Israel of showing a lack of commitment to the decades-old peace process, officials said.
    Netanyahu has repeatedly called on Abbas to return to talks without any pre-conditions and promised that Israel was ready to make concessions, if the Palestinians would also compromise.
    Before Abbas met Molcho, he received a call from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss regional issues, Abbas's office said. Clinton also spoke to Netanyahu mid-week to urge resumption in negotiations.
    U.S.-sponsored peace talks froze in 2010 after Netanyahu rejected Palestinian demands that he extend a partial settlement construction freeze he had introduced at Washington's behest.
    About 500,000 Israeli settlers and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem -- territory the Palestinians want for an independent state.
    The settlements are considered illegal by the International Court of Justice, the highest U.N. legal body for disputes. Israel cites historical and Biblical links to the land and says the status of settlements should only be decided in peace talks.
    Also on Sunday, Israeli Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported that 20 years after a decision to stop seeking for oil in the Golan Heights for political reasons, Israeli infrastructure minister Uzi Landau has re-approved the search.
    According to the paper, oil search in the Golan Heights was stopped when late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was in office and tried to hold negotiations with the Syrian government in the early 90's.
    "There is no special explorations just over there. That's a part of Israel and if there will be those who will be interested to explore all over the country, we are not making any differences," Landau told reporters at the weekly cabinet meeting.
    The newspaper estimates the move could draw protests from Syria, with possible repercussions over future of negotiations between the two states.
    The Golan Heights form a strategic plateau between Israel and Syria of about 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles). Israel captured it in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognised internationally.
    The Golan contains important water sources and has further strategic value because it overlooks northeastern Israel including the Sea of Galilee, a tourist attraction and Israel's biggest open reservoir.
    In 2000, Israel and Syria held their highest-level talks over a possible return of the Golan and a peace agreement.
    But the negotiations collapsed and subsequent talks, mediated by Turkey, also failed.
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