Erekat: We rejected proposal to form joint committees
Published yesterday 21:46 4 September 2010
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=313166

AMMAN (Ma'an) -- During talks in Washington, Palestinian negotiators
rejected an Israeli proposal to form 12 joint committees, PLO chief Saeb
Erekat said Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the proposal during the
opening round of direct negotiations, re-launched after a 20-month hiatus,
Erekat said in an interview with the Jordanian daily Ad-Dustur.

The PLO official said Netanyahu proposed the committees in order to waste
time and postpone negotiations.

Concerning the absence of the Middle East Quartet from negotiations, Erekat
told the Jordanian daily the US administration said it represented the
Quartet.

Quartet representative Tony Blair attended a dinner on the eve of talks but
did not participate in meetings, while envoys from the EU, Russia and the UN
were absent from negotiations.

The US would head a meeting with the Quartet and the Arab League follow-up
committee at the end of the month in New York, Erekat told the Jordanian
newspaper.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would participate in the next round of
negotiations, scheduled to be held in the region on 14-15 September, Erekat
added.

The agenda for the summit had been set, the negotiations chief said, and
included all final status issues.

President Mahmoud Abbas would meet Netanyahu every two weeks, and the role
of the PLO negotiations team was to prepare for these meetings, Erekat said,
adding that agreements reached would be implemented within 12 months.