Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 2 November 2003 — Palestinian leaders yesterday welcomed Israeli offers to resume peace talks but said any negotiations must come with efforts to halt Jewish settlement building on occupied Palestinian land.

New Israeli-Palestinian contacts would likely try to pick up the stalled US-backed road map for peace, which aims to end three years of fighting and create a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Progress on the first stages of the plan withered amid weeks of new fighting and the failure of both sides to meet their key obligations.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said earlier this week that he was willing to hold talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, reversing previous Israeli suggestions that it would not deal with the new Palestinian prime minister because he was too close to President Yasser Arafat. Both Israel and the United States have sought to sideline Arafat.

Qorei said yesterday that while no meeting with Sharon was immediately forthcoming there were contacts between the two sides.

“We have not studied the issue of a meeting, but there are contacts with the Israelis,” Qorei said. At the same time, the prime minister is trying to restart talks with Hamas and other hard-line groups aimed at persuading them to stop attacks on Israelis.

Israeli leaders rejected a similar course planned by his predecessor, calling it insufficient and insisting that the Palestinians dismantle the radical groups.

Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Cabinet minister in charge of negotiations, said the Palestinians were always ready for talks but said Israel must stop construction in Jewish settlements built on West Bank and Gaza lands the Palestinians want for a future state.

“Those who want to resume a meaningful peace process, resume negotiations, must stop settlements, must stop walls, must stop the fait accompli policies... and give the peace process the chance it deserves,” Erekat said.

Israeli media reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz also planned to hold meetings next week with Palestinian officials.

A new round of meetings also depends in part on whether the Palestinians can complete formation of a new government in the coming days. Qorei, who currently leads an emergency government with a one-month mandate, has until Tuesday to form a full Cabinet.

Meanwhile, legislators from Arafat’s Fatah faction met in Ramallah and picked a top Fatah official as their candidate to be Parliament speaker.

The nominee, Rafiq Al-Natche, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and former labor minister, was the most likely candidate to become the new speaker.

In speeches made as a lawmaker, Natche has expressed tough positions on issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, lobbying for no compromises on Palestinian demands for a future state with a capital in Arab East Jerusalem and the right of war refugees to return to Israel.