Foreign Ministry Statement on Israel-Palestinian talks

The negotiations that would lead to the signing of the second phase of the Oslo I agreement, which would be known as Oslo II, were picking up pace, with more subjects to be discussed. In fact, these talks were at the center of the Israeli diplomatic activity at the time. The prime minister and foreign minister were already then talking about a target date of 1 July for their completion. Text of the statement on the talks follows:

The Israeli and Palestinian delegations, headed by the Foreign Ministry Legal Advisor Yoel Singer and Dr. Sa'ib Arikat, will meet in Cairo tomorrow (Monday), 15.5.95, to begin another round of talks on Palestinian elections. This time, the meeting will be longer than usual and last for three straight days - in accordance with the agreement reached between the parties during the previous Cairo meeting - in order to accelerate the negotiations on elections and to try and complete them by the beginning of June (one month before the target date for the completion of negotiations on the entire interim agreement). A similar agreement was also reached between Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Dr. Nabil Sha'ath, during last week's meeting of the Joint Liaison Committee.

At the upcoming meeting, the two delegations will discuss election campaigning and security issues related to the holding of elections. They will also try to complete work on a mini-agreement which would enable the Palestinians to hold a "quasi-census" in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, in order to update the Population Registry data that Israel has sent them and to prepare a voters' registry.