PLO mini-parliament to declare state in 2000

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PLO mini-parliament to declare state in 2000

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA
, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The PLO's mini-parliament insisted on Thursday that an independent Palestinian state would be declared in 2000 even if negotiations with Israel on a final peace deal fail to meet a September deadline.

The declaration by the 129-member Palestinian Central Council (PCC) was contained in a statement at the end of a two-day meeting.

"The Palestinian Central Council reaffirms the necessity to declare the materialisation of the sovereignty of the Palestinian state within this year and to take all necessary steps and proper international contacts to achieve this."

It did not, as was widely expected, link the declaration to the mid-September deadline that both Israel and the Palestinians have agreed on as a target date for a final status peace deal.

But Ahmed Korei, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council who is also known as Abu Ala, said the declaration would be made by September.

"I think the utmost deadline will be September 13," he said after the PCC meeting concluded in Gaza.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has repeatedly said he will declare independence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip this year, irrespective of the progress of peace talks.

Talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat ended in deadlock earlier in the day after they were unable to agree on a land handover and a February 13 deadline for a framework peace deal.

PALESTINIAN FRUSTRATION

Officials on both sides said the main sticking point was a difference of opinion over what areas Israel would give Palestinians in the handover of a further 6.1 percent of the West Bank that had originally been scheduled for January 20.

The radical Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) that has previously boycotted PCC meetings and the radical Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), both opposed to PLO-Israeli peace deals, called for the immediate declaration of a Palestinian state regardless of the status of peace talks.

Thursday's negotiations ended with Barak saying that "very significant gaps" existed between the two sides and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat declaring that discussions were in a "real crisis."

A spokesman for Barak said the two sides would not meet the February deadline and that no new deadline had been set.

Palestinians have expressed frustration with the slow pace of talks with Israel that are intended to end decades of Arab-Israeli conflict and resolve such thorny issues as borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

"There will be no peace and no stability as long as Palestinian refugees remain in exile," the PCC said. It called on Israel to "fully withdraw from all Palestinian lands including Jerusalem to the 1967 borders."

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, areas Palestinians want as the basis of a future state.

Arafat postponed declaring a state last May after coming under international pressure deriving partly from concern the action might hand then-prime minister, right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, victory in Israel's general election.

) copyright 2000 Reuters, Ltd.

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), February 03, 2000

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