The Palestinian and Israeli negotiating teams will start as of next week extremely difficult talks to draft as it seems a joint document on the main issues for the final solution to be presented to the international conference to be held in November and that conference will launch in its turn the final status negotiations. Both leaders Abbas and Olmert will meet within the next coming weeks to review the works of their teams. The meeting lasted two hours and this is the first time that both negotiating teams attended half of the meeting as the second half which lasted one hour was devoted to a closed meeting between Abbas and Olmert. Palestinian and Israeli sources said the meeting revealed major gaps in the positions of both sides on the goal of the negotiations and the international conference. Abu Mazen wants a detailed working framework to settle all final status issues while Olmert insists on a general statement that does not tackle the core issues. An Israeli source said after the meeting: the two teams will hold intensive meetings in an attempt to reach a joint agreement; we want a joint statement to be agreed upon by both sides and not a final agreement and the joint statement will be general so that it won't obstruct the process. An Israeli senior official said: we intend to start negotiations without any time ceiling on a final agreement after the international meeting on peace in the Middle East. He added: both sides are working on drafting a joint declaration to be general enough to avoid obstacles and to allow us to move forward. Palestinian informed sources said as soon as both sides finalize the joint document, it will be presented to the PLO Executive Committee and the Israeli government for ratification before heading to the international meeting. Palestinian informed sources said Abbas and Olmert briefed the two negotiating teams on the results of the discussions that were held between the two leaders in the previous meetings.

Ahmad Qurei', Head of the Palestinian Negotiating Team, said next week will witness the start of intensive negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides to finalize a joint formula which will be presented to the international meeting in the fall and in parallel, regular meetings will continue between Abbas and Olmert. He added: We are talking about very important principles that do not leave any room for vagueness on the six final status issues for negotiations: Jerusalem, borders, settlements, refugees, water and the first item in the roadmap which includes halt of settlements and wall and return of the Jerusalem institutions and the release of prisoners. These issues need to be agreed upon. The meeting today reached two basic items: intensifying the meetings between the two negotiations teams to finalize the formula and the regular meetings between Abbas and Olmert will continue maybe once every two weeks or once every week as the situation calls for. The start of next week will witness the first meeting between the negotiating teams and the meetings will continue and US Secretary of State Rice will come to follow up and see what we have achieved so that the Americans can determine the date of the international conference; she will see the progress and based on this, the date will be decided.

Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian negotiating team will consist of the following: Ahmad Qurei' as head of the team, Yasser Abed Rabbo, and Saeb Erekat who will act as the coordinator of the work of the negotiating teams and the team will also include several experts and lawyers from the Negotiations Support Unit.

Informed sources said the US Administration informed both sides that it will not set up the exact date of the international meeting pending the results of the meetings and that it expects an agreement by the end of this month or the beginning of next month and the international meeting can be delayed until the end of November to give more time for the teams but for sure it wont be delayed until December.

Published at Al Ayyam NewsPaper on October 4, 2007