By Xinhua,
Ramallah : Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei on Wednesday affirmed that the fate of the Palestinian territories will be decided via negotiations, not according to Israel’s proposals.
“It is the negotiations which decide the fate of the land, not(Israeli) Defense Minister Ehud Barak,” Qurei told reporters in Ramallah. “We know our borders and will struggle in anyway to get them.”
Qurei’s Israeli counterpart Tzipi livni proposed that Israel keeps control on large settlement blocks in the West Bank, the Jordan River Valley and Jerusalem, the territories which were occupied in the 1967 war.
“We reject any Israeli statement regarding the 1967 territories,” Qurei said.
The U.S. mediated between Israel and the PNA and succeeded to resume their peace talks in November, hoping the two sides will reach a peace deal before the end of the term of U.S. President George W. Bush.
The expansion of the Israeli settlements, alongside military escalation, prevents the negotiations from making a breakthrough or even a notable progress.