By Xinhua,
Ramallah : U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has invited Palestinian negotiators to the United States to discuss and evaluate the staggering Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a senior Palestinian official said on Wednesday.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the invitation was sent to Ahmed Qurei, head of the Palestinian negotiation team. According to Rice’s invitation, the visit is scheduled for next month.
“This was the first such invitation” from Washington since the relaunching of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at a U.S.-hosted conference last November, Erekat added.
In the invitation, Rice said U.S. President George W. Bush was determined to see the Palestinians and Israel reaching a peace treaty, paving the way for the creation of a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel.
Since November, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators held tens of meetings to hammer out such a deal, but Israel’s continuous settlement activities in the West Bank blocks the progress of the talks.
On Tuesday, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Berlin on the sideline of a conference to support the Palestinian security sector.
They discussed many issues, “but the differences between the two sides are still wide,” Erekat said.