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Source: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/912599.html
PA-Israel Joint Declaration Not a Condition for Holding Conference
[Ha'aretz] Aluf Benn and Barak Ravid - U.S. Secretary of State Rice arrived in the region in a bid to advance a joint Palestinian-Israeli statement prior to the November meeting. Prime Minister Olmert said Sunday that the process of reaching a joint declaration "will be cautious and well-considered." "This declaration is not a condition, and never was a condition, for holding this conference in November," he said. The prime minister told the cabinet that he expects the conference to be followed by "discussions on the possibility of founding a Palestinian state." But, he said, "setting a timetable for this process in advance would create more problems than it would solve." Minister of Defense Barak told Rice that Israel would dismantle a permanent roadblock on the road connecting Bethlehem and Hebron in the West Bank as a gesture of goodwill toward the Palestinians. Barak added that the PA has yet to complete the daily deployment of 500 Palestinian police officers in the West Bank city of Nablus during daytime hours, a move which Rice approved during her last visit to the region. The defense minister reiterated to Rice that Israel's freedom to implement security measures within the West Bank is a basic principle which must be upheld in the future. Concerns have been mounting in Washington that the talks may falter because of the high expectations of the Palestinians as reflected in their public statements. The Americans are worried that the Palestinians are entrenching themselves in positions from which they will have difficulty compromising, and that Israel cannot accept.