Israel would take no steps to forward peace process if the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) does not fulfill its obligations to fight terror, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted by local media as saying on Sunday.
According to the website of Israeli daily the Jerusalem Post, Olmert made the remarks at the beginning of a weekly cabinet meeting.
"As long as the PNA doesn't implement the measures demanded of them, in the way which is demanded of them in order to act against terror organizations, the state of Israel will not be able to make any changes on the ground," Olmert was quoted as saying.
The prime minister added that any unilateral action would "expose Israel to dangers and could bring about security problems."
Olmert emphasized that Israel would not compromise on the issue, and the fulfillment of the PNA's obligations of fighting terror would continue to be an integral part of any dialogue with the Palestinians.
On Friday, two off-duty Israeli soldiers were killed during a drive-by shooting attack near the West Bank city of Hebron. The two managed to open fire on their attackers, killing one of them and seriously injuring another.
On Saturday, the interim prime minister Salaam Fayyad said that PNA security forces had arrested an unspecified number of suspects.
Fayyad expressed condolences for the victims of the attack, and said the PNA had handed over to Israeli authorities the dead men’s weapons, which the Palestinian attackers took.
Negotiators from Israel and the PNA have met twice since the final-status talks were revived at last month's Annapolis peace conference in the United States.
The first two round of talks yielded little progress as the atmosphere of the negotiations was soured by Israel's recent tenders for the construction of some 300 new homes in East Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa and some 200 new units in the Israeli settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim.
The talks will continue this week.
Source; Xinhua/
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