Jerusalem, 29 August 1999
Status of Talks - Update
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
At the conclusion of an additional meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian Authority negotiating teams today (Sunday), 29.8.99, satisfactory answers have still not been received from the Palestinian side on completing an agreement on a framework for the permanent settlement within six months and the date for the final implementation of the redeployment according to the Wye Agreement. Similarly, there is considerable disagreement between the sides on the issue of prisoners.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak has made it clear that if no understanding is achieved in the coming hours, he will consider ordering the original Wye Agreement which, according to his knowledge, does not serve the sides' common interests particularly well to be implemented as written.
Regarding the prisoners issue, numbers are not being discussed at this stage and there is no intention whatsoever to release even one prisoner who belongs to Hamas or Islamic Jihad. If and when the matter is agreed upon between the negotiating teams, it will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval.
The Prime Minister reiterated that none of the agreements, which have been achieved up until now on various issues in the negotiations, would be implemented until all disagreements between the sides are settled.