Palestinians and Israelis Open Talks Bush on the Way, They Agree to Negotiate on Conflict's Core Iss

Jan 09, 08:24 AM

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders met here Tuesday and authorized the start of negotiations on the core issues of their conflict, officials on both sides said.

The announcement came a day before President George W. Bush was to arrive in Jerusalem, with Israel and the Palestinians determined to show some progress since the U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Army and police officials said, two Katyusha rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, causing slight damage to property but no casualties.

Israeli politicians described the incident as an attempt by militants to heat up the border before the Bush visit. It was second time that Katyushas have been fired from Lebanon since the end of the war between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia in the summer of 2006.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, and a Lebanese Army spokesman denied that any rockets had been fired, news agencies reported.

Three 122-millimeter rockets were fired from Lebanon in June at the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, but caused no casualties, Israeli officials said. Hezbollah said it was not involved and Lebanese and Israeli officials attributed responsibility to a small Palestinian group.

The prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, met for two hours, first together with their top negotiators and staff, then alone.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Olmert, said of the meeting: "Both leaders agreed to authorize their negotiating teams," headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Israel and a former Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, "to conduct direct and ongoing negotiations on all the core issues" for a final status agreement.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator who attended the meeting, said afterward that Bush had "urged that the year of 2008 be made the year to reach peace. The intention is to see to it that we give peace a chance."

In the weeks since Annapolis, negotiators have met regularly but made little headway, with the Palestinian side demanding that Israeli halt all settlement building before any substantive talks can begin.

The Palestinian side raised the issue of settlements again on Tuesday and also asked Israel to halt its military assaults on Palestinian territory, Erekat said.

Regev said the Israelis had raised their own security concerns, especially after materials for the manufacture of crude rockets were found in an army raid in the West Bank city of Nablus on Jan. 3.

The sides now are supposed to address the most contentious issues of the conflict, including borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees from the conflict of 1948, and their descendants, and the status of Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim the eastern part of city as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

(c) 2008 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. Palestinians and Israelis Open Talks Bush on the Way, They Agree to Negotiate on Conflict's Core Iss
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