The Palestinian Authority's international cooperation minister, Nabil Shaath, has warned that peace talks with Israel are unlikely to succeed unless there is a major shift in Israeli positions.
"(Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Barak is more interested in the progress of his of his election campaign than the peace process," Shaath told the French weekly newspaper Journal du Dimanche in an interview to be published Sunday.
"Most of the time we are going backwards rather than forwards. (Barak's) envoy to Washington says that security is the only subject they want to discuss, but all they have to do is withdraw their tanks and the security will be much better."
"The Israelis do not appear to be serious. To reach an accord in 10 days means that significant changes will have to be made in their positions on the occupation," Chaath said.
He said the question of the right to return of refugees remained the major obstacle to an accord, even though the US and Israel have presented the major stumbling block as the future status of Jerusalem.
"They think that if we obtain something on Jerusalem we will totally forget the question of refugees. That is false," he said -- PARIS (AFP)
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