Abbas Wants Framework Accord at Mideast Conference

In this handout image provided by the Palestinian Press Office (PPO), Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on September 2, 2007 in Ramallah, West Bank. Solana is speaking with Palestinian and Israeli politicians in preparation for a Middle East peace conference to be held later this year with the Quartet powers the EU, the USA, Russia and the UN. (Photo by Omar Rashidi/PPO via Getty Images)

Palestinian president says framework, timeline for implementation of peace agreement vital for success of upcoming conference

2 September 2007

Israel-Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants a planned Middle East conference to result in a framework agreement for peace with Israel and set a timeline for implementation, a senior aide said on Sunday.

We are concerned that November 15 will come - if this will indeed be the date for this international conference - without arriving at a specific agreement on all the issues, and that this meeting will be described as a failure," Abbas said.

Abbas has been pressing a reluctant Israel to discuss in depth matters at the core of any future agreement on Palestinian statehood - the shape of final borders and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

"We need a framework agreement with a timeline for implementation," a senior Abbas aide said, describing the Palestinian leader's position.

At a news conference with Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Abbas said: "We do not want a meeting that results in merely a statement. We do not want a meeting that will end up a failure for everybody."

The senior aide said Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed to bridge their differences on the issue at their last meeting, on August 28.

Abbas said last week the conference proposed by U.S. President George W. Bush would be a waste of time if Israel continued to seek only a broadbrush "declaration of principles".

Israeli officials have used that phrase to describe what Olmert might offer in answer to calls for rapid, final talks in details on establishing a Palestinian state.

Raising the bar too high, the officials have said, could lead to disappointment and crush renewed efforts to revive peacemaking stalled by seven years of violence.