Israel wants to remain in control of 40 per cent of the West Bank and leave dozens of settlements intact as part of a peace deal that will see a Palestinian state created with only temporary borders, according to Palestinian sources.
6:11PM BST 05 Sep 2013
In the latest in a series of leaks portraying Palestinian disenchantment with the revived peace process, an official familiar with the negotiations said Israel also wanted to leave military bases and installations in the West Bank while retaining control of its border with Jordan.
"Israel is using the issue of security to take land," an official told the Associated Press news agency. "From the general discussions we had in the last couple of weeks, the Israelis have shown no intention to dismantle any settlement."
Even evacuated settlements would stay intact, the official said. The two sides remain deeply divided over future frontiers, which Palestinians insist should be based on borders that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, argues that these are militarily indefensible.
"They said, 'Let's discuss a state with provisional borders.' We said, 'Let's agree on a state based on the 1967 borders first, and then we can agree on having this state in phases," the official said.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has previously rejected the idea of an interim agreement that leaves intractable issues such as the status of Jerusalem – claimed by both sides as their capital – and the fate of refugees unresolved.
The latest disclosure comes after negotiators met on Tuesday for what is said to have been their sixth session since talks formally resumed at the end of July.
Palestinian sources have repeatedly expressed public dissatisfaction over a lack of progress, despite an official news blackout requested by John Kerry, the US secretary of state, whose shuttle diplomacy was largely responsible for the talks' resumption after a three-year gap.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, an aide to Mr Abbas authorised to speak publicly on the issue, described them as "futile" on Wednesday and said there was little hope of progress without more direct American involvement.
The Palestinians have complained that Martin Indyk, the US state department envoy, has been excluded from most sessions at Israel's request.
Israeli officials have declined to comment.
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