Palestinian leaders have ruled out the possibility of extending peace talks with Israel beyond their nine-month timeframe, chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said. “We turn down any extension,” Erakat told adding that some of his recent remarks about the matter had been misinterpreted.
“I said that if we reach an agreement on all final status issues, we could continue to discuss the details,” he said. At a dinner with journalists, Erakat had raised the possibility of talks being prolonged for up to a year if parties agree on key issues by the time the current talks wrap up on April 29.
The US State Department welcomed his statement, while saying the nine-month schedule still remained in place. At an Arab League meeting in Cairo, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas “stressed his rejection of all partial and temporary solutions and that the solution should resolve all final status issues, within nine months which cannot be extended, expiring on April 29,” said Erakat.
