Barak, Arafat holding third day of talks

March 9, 2000
Web posted at: 7:00 a.m. EST (1200 GMT)

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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (CNN) -- Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak are in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh Thursday for their third consecutive day of talks.

They are expected to brief Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on their agreement to resume peace negotiations in Washington later this month.

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Hear President Mubarak welcome the start of the talks Thursday 453K/41 sec. AIFF or WAV sound
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CNN's Jerrold Kessel shows scenes from Wednesday's meeting. (March 8) QuickTime Play Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

U.S. Middle East Envoy Dennis Ross said the formal talks would resume after the four-day Muslim "Feast of Sacrifice," Eid Al-Adha, which begins March 16. He said both sides wanted to push forward as soon as possible.

"The parties made good progress in addressing and resolving many of the interim issues and agreed to intensify their negotiations," Ross said. "Towards this end, they agreed that negotiations would resume after the Eid in Washington."

The summit followed a surprise late-night session in Tel Aviv between Arafat and Barak on Tuesday. That meeting took place after Arafat, speaking to his Parliament, promised to declare an independent Palestinian state in 2000 whether or not he had secured a peace treaty with Israel.

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Ross said the goal is to reach a blueprint for a peace treaty "as soon as possible," adding that September 13 remained the deadline for a final accord. That accord, he said, will include the status of Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their capital.

He called Wednesday's meeting "an important step in reaffirming the Israeli and Palestinian commitment to work in a spirit of partnership and mutual confidence to end the conflict between them."

Israel's announcement Sunday that it would remove its troops from south Lebanon with or without a peace agreement with Syria also likely provided an impetus to restart the Palestinian talks.

Palestinian officials said both sides had accepted a U.S.-Egyptian proposal for a new agenda for the talks, including these terms:

  • Within weeks, Israel will transfer 6.1 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians. That transfer had been stalled over which land would be transferred.

  •  A new deadline of May would be set to replace a missed February deadline for completion of a framework for a peace agreement.

  • In June, Israel will carry out another land handover.

All sides spoke of a good atmosphere surrounding the summits.

Peace talks broke down last month over issues surrounding Israel's handover of West Bank land to Palestinian control.

Correspondent Jerrold Kessel contributed to this report.

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No breakthrough as Israel, Palestinian land summit fails
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Israeli, Palestinian summit on land transfer collapses
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Palestinians reject Israeli maps as land transfer looms
February 2, 2000

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