Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have made "a breakthrough" regarding Israeli checkpoints in West Bank, a Palestinian official said on Tuesday.
Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator, added that Israel "works on removing some of these checkpoints to ease the daily suffering of the Palestinian people."
The progress was made during a meeting between the two men held in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon as part of biweekly meetings to follow up the peace negotiations.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 41 checkpoints and other physical limitations on movement were registered in West Bank since September 2007, increasing the number of such obstacles to 607.
Meanwhile, Erekat reiterated that the negotiations, renewed in November following a U.S. initiative, were difficult and complicated due to the continuation of settlement activities in West Bank and East Jerusalem.
"The Israeli settlement really bites the peace process and the Palestinian leadership studies all the options if the negotiations failed," Erekat said.
Israeli Housing Ministry published a bid on Sunday for the construction of 884 apartment units in east Jerusalem.
According to statistics of Israeli government, Israel has approved the construction of about 2,000 homes in disputed territory since renewing peace talks with the Palestinians at the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis conference last November.
The Palestinians consider the West Bank and East Jerusalem as part of their future statehood. "The Palestinians want peace... but not the peace that denies East Jerusalem as a capital for the state of Palestine," said Erekat.
Source:Xinhua
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