By Xinhua
Ramallah : An aide to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned on Sunday that going to a U.S.-sponsored peace conference without a framework agreement between Israel and the Palestinians would be “dangerous.”
“It is very dangerous to go to the conference without agreement,” Abbas’ political advisor Nemer Hamad told reporters in Ramallah.
He added that “the framework agreement is needed to bridge the gap or at least reduce the gap so it could be bridged there in November meeting.”
“If things were worse, we want the international community to play a role … as more than one nation insisted on the necessity to make the conference successful,” Hamad said.
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have been meeting periodically in recent months in an effort to reach an agreement ahead of the U.S.-hosted international Mideast peace conference in November.
“Abbas and Olmert have talked about the final-status issues butdid not agree on any written point,” Hamad said, disclosing that they are expected to meet again on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the meeting “will continue discussing basic issues as the previous meetings.”
Israeli sources have said that the upcoming talks between the two men will give the green light to joint technical teams that will formulate a deal.
On July 16, U.S. President George W. Bush proposed to hold an international conference this fall, which would include Israel, the Palestinians, and some neighboring Arab states, to help resume the stalled Middle East peace talks.