Palestinian chief negotiator Azzam Al-Ahmad on Tuesday accused the Israeli delegation involved in talks on prospects of resolving the Gaza crisis of stalemating the negotiations.
There have been no progress whatsoever at the negotiating table and matters have become much more complicated, said Al-Ahmad, cited by the official Egyptian Middle East News Agency (MENA).
He added that the Palestinian delegation "had delivered the latest paper (of proposals on ceasing the fighting) two hours ago to the Egyptian side and we remained waiting for a reply till this moment." Egyptian officials have been mediating between the Israeli and Palestinian officials, engaged in the marathon talks in the Egyptian capital to enforce a viable truce to stop the fighting in Gaza, amid reports about proposals and counterpart proposals from the two sides -- such as the Palestinians' key demand to lift the siege on the strip.
"The Israeli delegation is trying to dictate what they want and this is impossible," Al-Azzam said, charging that the Israeli negotiators were adopting a policy of dodging and procrastination.
Al-Ahmad indicated that he and his fellow negotiators would wait for five hours to receive a reply to the latest paper of proposals on resolving the conflict. "We the Palestinians have been quite flexible," he said.
The Israeli and Palestinian negotiators resumed the Egyptian-mediated indirect talks today, after agreeing to extend a truce for 24 hours, however, it appeared to have been breached with renewed hostilities.
Moreover, adding to the snags, there have been fresh reports indicating that the Israeli delegation to the talks flew back to Tel Aviv tonight.