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				Israel-PA Talks Called Off

Jerusalem Post, Feb. 7, 2000, By Danna Harman

AMMAN (February 7) - The permanent status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were called off yesterday and it is unclear when they will resume, officials in the Prime Minister's Office said yesterday.

A top government official, blaming the impasse on the Palestinians, said that under these circumstances the West Bank withdrawal planned for this week would not take place.

According to the official, following the unsuccessful meeting last week between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and the inability to patch matters up over the weekend, the talks on all tracks - interim and permanent status - have now ground to a halt. The main point of contention continues to be the upcoming withdrawal, specifically Palestinian frustration with the choice of land Israel is offering and the fact that the Palestinians were not consulted in the mapmaking process.

The marathon talks have thus been transmuted into "informal" talks, and the 6.1 percent redeployment, already delayed, is apparently to be further postponed.

"There is tension," admitted the official. "But we are ready to move on when the Palestinians are."

The official added that despite Palestinian requests for US interference, he did not believe the Americans wanted to get involved.

"I think that it is our responsibility, alone with the Palestinians, to get to a solution," Barak told reporters yesterday.

A US official, in turn, said that while US envoy Dennis Ross did plan to be back in the region within a week, "the administration thought it best that the two sides talk directly to each other."

In Jordan yesterday, Barak updated King Abdullah II on the problems with the talks, and assured him that he was not putting the Syrian track ahead of the Palestinian one. In the course of a brief press conference in Amman, Barak mentioned four times his intention to work on "simultaneous tracks."

The government is determined to "find a way to move forward and work simultaneously on both tracks. We are not going to divorce ourselves from any side," Barak said.

Barak said that if he were to find partners "on any side" he would move forward, and "an agreement will be achieved through compromise." Before leaving Amman, Barak laid a commemorative wreath at the tomb of the late Jordanian King Hussein, who died a year ago today.

Meanwhile, in Cairo yesterday, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and accused Barak of not respecting accords. Arafat said that under Barak, settlements were expanding faster than under Binyamin Netanyahu. Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa later told reporters that Arafat described talks with Barak as "absurd."

Also in Cairo yesterday, Foreign Minister David Levy said the Palestinians, "as was their wont," were trying to create a crisis. Levy was in Egypt to attend a committee meeting on displaced persons together with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan and PA Minister of Planning Nabil Shaath.

This committee, established by the Oslo accords, brings together policy-makers from Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to seek solutions for the problem of the 1967 Palestinian refugees. Yesterday's meeting focused on defining "displaced persons" and in setting up a data base to centralize information.

It also was agreed that a committee of experts will meet in Israel in two weeks to continue discussions. The Israeli delegation will be led by Yossi Hadas, former director-general of the Foreign Ministry. The foreign ministers will meet again in Tel Aviv three months from now.

Lamia Lahoud adds:

Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei suggested yesterday that Israel and the PA skip the framework agreement and start negotiations over the detailed final peace deal, due in September.

"I don't think we need a framework agreement, because the time [for it] is almost finished, so let's go straight to the comprehensive agreement," Qurei told The Jerusalem Post, calling the framework a waste of time.

"We want to reach a peace deal by September," as agreed in the Sharm e-Sheikh agreement, Qurei added. The PLO Central Council has set September as the deadline for the declaration of a Palestinian state.