Israel and the Palestinians have reported progress in their negotiations to remove obstacles holding up implementation of the Wye River peace accord. Earlier this evening, Israeli cabinet minister, Haim Ramon, presented new proposals to break a deadlock over the release of high security Palestinian prisoners. The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has cut short a visit to Holland to be on hand for the latest developments.
Haim Ramon said earlier that he is optimistic an agreement on the next stage of the Middle East peace process can be secured, despite his government's insistence earlier today that negotiations had broken down. The minister had two hours of talks with Palestinian negotiators on a deal to implement the stalled Wye River land-for-peace accord.
Yasser Arafat said, after a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister, that he still hopes agreement can be reached with Israel. Israel said that the Palestinians had to accept its conditions preventing early release for those prisoners it considers to have, as it put it, blood on their hands. The two sides had been trying to end an eight-month-old deadlock in the peace process in time for a signing ceremony tomorrow with the American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright.
