Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon has proposed Palestinian officials that Israel would withdraw from most of the West Bank territories as part of a peace deal, local media reported on Friday.
Ramon is offering the Palestinians an Israeli withdrawal from nearly all of the West Bank, including the Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, as part of a final peace deal, according to Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
Ramon met caretaker Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and other senior officials in an effort to put together a joint Israeli-Palestinian declaration of principles that will be presented in November at a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference, said the report.
According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the border between Israel and the future Palestinian state will roughly follow the route of the separation fence leaving major Israeli settlement blocs and between 3 and 8 percent of the West Bank in Israel's hands.
In return, Israel will cede the same amount of land inside Israel to the Palestinians to make up for the annexed territory -- possibly including a land corridor between the West Bank and Gaza.
The agreement will also require both sides to immediately implement stage A of the Middle East road map: The Palestinian will disarm all armed groups in their territory, while Israel will withdraw its forces from the Palestinian towns and evacuate all illegal outposts.
The agreement will propose that east Jerusalem will be divided among the two states and holy sites in Jerusalem's Old City will be under the control of the various religions and no national flags will be flown.
As to the refugee issue, Palestinians who became refugees when Israel was founded in 1948 will not be allowed into Israel, but only into the future Palestinian state, and an international fund will be set up to pay for their rehabilitation.
In his talks with the Palestinians, Ramon pledged that immediately after the agreement is signed, Israel would hand over to the Palestinians three eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods, as goodwill gesture, said the report.
Tzahi Moshe, a spokesman for Ramon, would not comment on the report.
Information Minister Riad Malki of the Ramallah-based Palestinian caretaker government denied that Ramon had met with Fayyad or with any other Palestinian government official.
Source: Xinhua
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