Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Wednesday to begin work on a joint declaration setting out their positions on the core issues of their long conflict before a U.S.-proposed peace conference tentatively scheduled for next month.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams will meet privately next week to begin the contentious drafting process, which for the first time in years will expose the extent of their disagreement on such issues as the shape of a future Palestinian state, the right claimed by Palestinian refugees to return to homes inside Israel, and the division of Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who met here Wednesday for the latest in a series of confidence-building meetings, have disagreed on what standing the document should have in the international conference that President Bush proposed earlier this year. Olmert has favored drawing up a general declaration of principles, while Abbas has demanded a more detailed and binding document.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said after Wednesday's meeting that the document "would not be a peace agreement." But he said "it must be substantive" if it is to serve as the basis for final-status talks following the meeting. The Israelis and Palestinians have not held formal negotiations since January 2001.
"Our differences will materialize once we sit down," Erekat said. "But it is time to finish this. It is time for decisions, not negotiations."
The Bush administration has yet to set a date for the meeting or issue invitations to possible participants. Israel would like to see in attendance such regionally powerful Arab countries as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which do not have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. Israeli and Palestinian officials have been working under the assumption that the meeting will be held in mid-November, perhaps at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.
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