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Palestinians, Israelis Seek Peace Talks

Posted on: Saturday, 11 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

Israeli opposition politicians and Palestinian officials sought to revive peace talks Saturday in meetings being held without the backing of the Israeli government.

Some 40 Israeli opposition politicians, human rights activists and former Palestinian Cabinet ministers were expected to issue a declaration emphasizing that peace and greater Palestinian-Israeli cooperation is the only way to stabilize the Mideast.

But Samir Rantisi, an adviser to the Palestinian delegation, told reporters late Saturday that no such declarations would be issued following the talks.

Atta Khairi, the deputy chief of the Jordan-based Palestinian Mission, said the talks were being chaired by Israeli Labor Party leader Yossi Beilin and Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.

Earlier in the day, Khairi told The Associated Press the talks were a bid to revive peace negotiations based on earlier talks and a plan proposed by former President Clinton at a meeting of Palestinian and Israeli leaders in Camp David in July 2000.

That plan projected a Palestinian state in Gaza and about 95 percent of the West Bank as well as parts of traditionally Arab eastern Jerusalem, including limited sovereignty over a Muslim shrine that abuts the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.

The talks - which continued through a summit at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba - broke off without agreement on Jan. 27, 2001, with Clinton already out of office.

The talks opened Friday at a resort hotel on the shores of the Dead Sea and are expected to continue until Sunday.

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