By Xinhua
Jerusalem : Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) over the text of a joint statement to be filed at the upcoming Annapolis meeting are making progress, Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported on its website on Tuesday.
The report said negotiating teams of the two sides, led respectively by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former PNA prime minister Ahmed Qurei, managed to bridge a number of differences during their meeting which lasted to late Monday night.
A major achievement of Monday talks was an agreement between the two sides that the declaration to be filed at the Annapolis summit would not involve the “core issues” but would concentrate on the process of the negotiations after the summit.
“There is optimism compared with recent days, and there is a good chance of reaching a mutually agreed upon text of the declaration in coming days,” an Israeli official source was quoted by Ha’aretz as saying.
The talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams had bogged down as the two sides had huge gaps over whether bring the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, namely the status of Jerusalem, borders of the future Palestine statehood and the fate of Palestinian refugees, to the Annapolis summit.
While the negotiating teams of the two sides made progress, the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the PNA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was also positive, according to a spokesman for Olmert’s office.
Olmert is also expected in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for talks in preparation ahead of the summit.
Israeli officials were quoted by local media as saying that Olmert would ask Mubarak to use his influence to persuade as many Arab states as possible to take part in the Annapolis summit.
The U.S.-sponsored international Mideast peace conference was aimed at reviving peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. It was scheduled to be convened next week in Annapolis, Maryland.