Sunday, July 19, 2009

PMO blasts Erekat-Mottaki meeting
herb keinon and jpost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 19, 2009

www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443849816&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

The Prime Minister's Office blasted top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
for a meeting he held with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki,
saying it stands in stark contrast to the Palestinian refusal to negotiate
with the Netanyahu government.

"The Palestinian side has refused to allow the resumption of peace talks by
placing pre-conditions on such a resumption," said Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev, referring to the Palestinian demand that
Israel declare a total settlement freeze and accept a two-state solution
before negotiations can be renewed.

"It appears, however, that they have no qualms and place no pre-conditions
upon dialogue with the most extreme and violent enemies of peace."

Erekat earlier on Sunday played down the recent meeting with Mottaki in
Sharm el-Sheikh, wondering what all the fuss was about.

"We saw each other, it was just a regular meeting," he told Israel Radio,
laughing off a suggestion that there was "normalization between Fatah and
Iran."

He said he was dismayed that "two people shaking hands and meeting for 10 or
15 minutes," had hit the headlines.

"After all," he continued, "it's not the first time; it's not something
new," noting that the two had met recently in Davos and Riyadh.

A senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had told
AFP on Sunday that the Erekat-Mottaki meeting took place three days ago, and
claimed that it was the first high-level meeting between the Palestinian
Authority and Iran since the PA was established in 1994.

"They discussed the internal Palestinians situation and the need for
successful negotiations between Hamas and Fatah," he said.

The two also discussed "the need for a balance between Fatah and Hamas, the
need for support of dialogue [between the two groups]... regional conditions
and how to strike a balance in support between Hamas and Fatah," he
continued.

Meanwhile, Egypt has set August 25 as a new deadline for a power-sharing
deal between Hamas and Fatah.

Senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmed said Sunday that Egyptian mediators
will hold separate talks with both sides in coming

Nothing more, nothing less.