Palestinian legislative speaker council Ahmed Qorei said Wednesday they would only return to the peace negotiating table once Israel halts its "aggressions," and warned they would fight any unilateral separation plan by the Jewish state.
"We are ready to go back to the negotiations once Israel withdraws its forces from outside the main populated areas (in the occupied territories), stops its aggression and the situation goes back to what it was before September 28," Qorei said.
"Now we need a new formula, a new structure, a new way with the negotiations with Israel," Qorei, one of the top peace negotiators with Israel, told a press conference in Ramallah.
The near month-long tide of deadly unrest in the Palestinian territories was sparked by a visit on September 28 by Israel's hawkish opposition leader Ariel Sharon to a hotly contested Jerusalem shrine that is sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
Almost 140 people have died, most of them Palestinians killed by Israeli rubber bullets and live rounds.
"We appeal to the international community, we appeal to the United Nations, to the United States, to China, to the Arab world and to Russia to protect Palestinian people against the Israeli aggression, and to implement UN resolutions," said Qorei.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has called a "time out" in the seven year Middle East peace process until there is a halt to the violence and is pushing to create an emergency government with the inclusion of Sharon and his Likud party.
"We need other international powers besides the US to guarantee that the principles of negotiations are implemented and not the principles of the Israel government," Qorei added.
Barak has raised the idea of a unilateral "separation" between Israel and the Palestinian territories in the absence of any final peace agreement, planning a de facto annexation of the areas of the West Bank where the three main blocks of Jewish settlements are situated, as well as the Jordan valley.
"The separation that Mr. Barak and the Israelis are talking about means keeping the occupation and annexing the settlement blocs and we will fight it with all means," Qorei said -- RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
