Dr. Saeb Erekat on the Quartet Report

Our first reading of the Quartet Report is clear. It does not meet our expectations as a nation living under a foreign colonial military occupation; wherein it attempts to equalize the responsibilities between a people under occupation and a foreign military occupier. 

Evidently, certain parties of the international community insist on trying to avoid their own legal and moral responsibilities to implement international law and conventions; to protect the Palestinian people and to ensure the fulfillment of our right to self-determination.

We continue to insist that in order for meaningful negotiations to succeed, all signed agreements must be implemented with clear terms of reference and a timeframe; including a full cessation of Israeli settlement activities and the freedom of all the pre-Oslo prisoners. 

The goal must be the establishment of a sovereign State of Palestine on the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital and the realization of the internationally recognized and long overdue inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. 

We continue to encourage the international community to support the French Peace Initiative for a multilateral peace conference as well as the Arab Peace Initiative. 

In the coming two days, the Fatah Central Committee and the PLO Executive Committee will respectively meet to analyze the situation. An official response to the Quartet Report should be expected following the PLO Executive Committee meeting on Sunday.