JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli and Palestinian leaders are planning to meet on Tuesday, a day before US President George W. Bush arrives for a landmark visit, officials on both sides told AFP on Sunday.
"We are planning a meeting between Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert and president (Mahmud) Abbas on Tuesday to discuss negotiations and core issues," the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the meeting had not yet been finalised.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat confirmed that the encounter was planned for Tuesday.
"President Abbas demanded this meeting because of the Israeli escalations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip," he said, referring to continuing army operations in the Palestinian territories.
"The peace process cannot be successful unless there is a stop to settlements and Israeli escalations against the Palestinian people," he said.
Bush is set to spend three days in Israel and the Palestinian territories from next Wednesday in the first visit by a sitting US president in nine years, following his predecessor Bill Clinton's trip in December 1998.
The visit is part of a January 8-16 tour of the Middle East that aims to provide fresh impetus to the peace talks with an eye to creating an independent Palestinian state before Bush leaves office in January 2009.
Another Israeli official told AFP that negotiating teams headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian former prime minister Ahmed Qorei would meet on Monday to discuss the logistics of the renewed talks.
"We have made progress on the framework of negotiations and hope to reach an agreement after tomorrow's meeting," the official said.
Erakat also confirmed the meeting of the negotiating teams.
He said the two sides are likely to set up a committee headed by Livni and Qorei that will be charged with discussing the core issues of the decades-long conflict.
Core issues are the most intractable questions that have sunk past peace efforts, and include Jerusalem, borders, settlements and refugees.
The negotiating teams have met twice since peace talks were formally relaunched at the US conference in the city of Annapolis in late November, but little progress has been made amid Palestinian anger over continuing Israeli settlements.
When they relaunched their negotiations after a near seven-year freeze, Abbas and Olmert pledged to aim for a final peace agreement before the end of 2008 -- a month before Bush leaves office.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
