Israel, Palestinian Officials Launch Negotiations on Final Peace Deal
Israeli and Palestinian officials have formally launched negotiations aimed at reaching a final peace agreement by the end of this year.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia opened the talks Monday at a hotel in Jerusalem. An Israeli official described the session as “preparatory”.The two sides are expected to discuss the most intractable disputes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and the borders of a Palestinian state.
President Bush said on a visit to Israel and the West Bank last week that he expects an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty to be signed by the time he leaves office in January 2009.
Israel and the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to restart peace talks after a seven-year break at a U.S.-hosted conference last November.
After the conference, preliminary talks between the two sides stalled because of disputes about Israeli building plans in occupied territory and Israeli military operations against Palestinian militants.
In another development, an Israeli missile attack on a car in the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinian militants late Sunday. The Israeli military says the targeted militants were involved in firing rockets at Israel.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Israel is increasingly looking like a bunch of lying murderers. Of course one must dig a bit deeper than the pablum porpaganda of CNN et al when discovering the truth.
But hey, any country that could sanction the murder of a 23 year old American peace activist by rolling a bulldozer over her has got to have some serious morality problems.
The Palestinians are David. Israel is Goliath. What irony!