Israel, Palestine to start drafting peace accord

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-8  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

ISRAELI and Palestinian negotiators agreed to start drafting elements of a proposed peace accord, the chief Palestinian negotiator has said.

But Ahmed Qureia has also criticized Israel for not easing Palestinian movement in the West Bank.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be heading to the region next week to try to push negotiations forward, her office said.

Qureia, a veteran negotiator heading the Palestinian team, made it clear that the decision did not necessarily reflect agreement on major issues. But this would be the first time since negotiations resumed more than six months ago that anything is committed to paper.

"We agreed with the Israelis to begin writing the positions," Qureia said late on Friday, but Israeli government officials would not comment on the issue.

Qureia did not explain why the sides had agreed at this point to begin drafting a text.

The timing coincides with a corruption scandal in Israel that threatens to unseat Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Should Israel find itself going to early elections, polls show Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes major territorial concessions to the Palestinians, becoming Israel's next premier.

However, drafting during previous rounds of peace talks has not meant always that those positions were then preserved for future negotiators.