Saeb Erakat Quotations

We need between three to six months. I am not going to specify the periods now because we have an international committee actually involving the European Union, the United States, Canada, Japan and Norway who work with us in the local government elections. I will convene this committee as soon as possible.

Sharon and his army control the West Bank, and still these things happen,

If they want peace, they must know that what is happening in the Gaza Strip must happen in the West Bank and east Jerusalem,

I don't expect any breakthrough between now and January 20, or for that matter February 6,

I believe what happened tonight is part of a plan, is part of what we are going to see is an escalation hitting towns and hitting the radio station,

I don't think Sharon had intended by doing this tonight to give the peace process any chance at all. Nothing justifies the targeting and the bombardment of this residential area.

What matters is the content of this summit, not the date,

I was under shock, ... You have to think, 'take it down, then they'll storm the plane, somebody may shoot.'

will be the biggest blow to President Bush's two-state solution and will sabotage any idea of a road map.

We don't want to meet just for the sake of meeting. We want a well-prepared meeting with an extensive agenda focusing on all the current issues.

We had five days of intensive talks. It's been tough, it's been difficult.

We have a U.S. administration that's seeking to see the process as crisis management here and there. They're not telling Mr. Netanyahu to stop it.

Unfortunately we should not expect much out of this summit.

Where do we go with this vicious cycle?

We have left no stone unturned, and we have come a long way. And we, as Palestinians, appreciate very much the efforts that are exerted and were exerted by President Clinton.

We are having serious, in-depth negotiations. Gaps still do exist on all issues. We are exerting maximum efforts, but at the end of the day, the gaps are still there.

We demanded from the Israelis to move their forces outside the area of friction, at the entrances of our towns, villages and refugee camps -- to no avail,

We want the U.S. to respect and honor the agreement and release Abu Abbas.

Those who planned the attack in Tel Aviv, which we condemn in the strongest possible terms, had the objective of stopping and undermining the peace process, and they should not win. We should continue the process of negotiation.

We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. Every time there is movement toward resumption of negotiations we get these attacks by the Israelis.

urge the U.S. and the Europeans to provide international observers immediately.

There is nothing scheduled for a meeting between President Arafat and Mr. Peres,

What Mr. Sharon is doing is saying to the whole world, 'I will win.' But ... he will score victory over what?

We want to deal as a package. This is the approach, this report cannot be fragmented. And I say again, it cannot be fragmented, no party can be selective.

We don't want a meeting for the sake of the meeting. We need a meeting with substance.

We should be prepared for elections and carry out whatever is possible to implement,

We are still waiting to hear from them.

We are still at odds over the numbers of the prisoners to be released, ... We are demanding 400 and they will only accept 350.

Both of them (Katsav and Sharon) confirmed that they were ready to meet Abu Mazen as well without any formal date being finalised.

I urge the Israelis to understand that we need to continue talking. I also urge the good office of President Bush to exert every possible effort to resume the contacts.

The whole situation is in a very, very critical juncture now. Something needs to happen, in terms of implementation of the road map, and the only party that can do that intervention is the United States, and I hope they will interfere immediately in order to give the road map the chance it deserves.

These experts will work with our team as of tomorrow afternoon. President Arafat has assigned a team to follow up on all its aspects.

The solution is in the hands of Dennis Ross. We hope he is coming to save the process.

The stalemate in the negotiations. the non-implementation of the agreements, the policy of settlement expansion -- all joined together spells disaster,

President Clinton said he will give the same chance to the Israelis to pose their reservations and qualifications and then he will get in touch with us ... We will wait and see what Mr. Ross carries with him before we jump to conclusions.

Aid from Germany, the European Union and other donor countries must continue to finance infrastructure projects in all fields.

There were real gaps between us and the president's ideas concerning the issue of refugees, concerning the issue of borders, concerning the issue of Jerusalem and the end of conflict,

Abu Mazen (Abbas) told President Katsav that he was happy about the way disengagement had been implemented and its peaceful organisation.

It's about details of maps, details of roads, about borders, details about refugees, about Jerusalem,

These type of actions will only will lead to further violence and will hinder the chances for a peace process.

The Israelis would do better to attach no conditions and come back to the bargaining table.

I'm really confused after Mr. Sharon's statement. Is he seeking a pretext for not negotiating, because he said he can't negotiate with us without having a precondition, and then he said we must come to the negotiations without precondition, so he's conditioning us and asking to come into negotiations from scratch.

I hope that Mr. Gold and Mr. Sharon will stop this broken record, assigning blame. Finger pointing will not save the lives of Israelis and Palestinians.

I know students who come to my office who are supposed to go to Amman or America in their fifth year or sixth year ... , ... The Israelis are telling them, 'You're not going to be allowed to leave unless you accept to collaborate with us.'

If Mr. Sharon is in the government, we all know the peace process will be over,

If Mr. Ross comes today and he leaves like he did the last two times, we'll be facing a disaster.

I must say that this could be preparing for something big, storming the church, destroying the church and then blaming it on Palestinians,

Instead of saying unilateral separation, unilateral fences, I tell the Israelis we need to establish good fences between us, because good fences make good neighbors.

Call it a fence, call it a wall, call it barrier -- whatever -- I don't care,

If he wants to see the future generations of Palestinians and Israelis living in peace, what are the forces doing in the West Bank and Gaza?

I'd hoped we'd go to the summit having lifted the siege, having stopped the hostilities, having had the international inquiry so we can concentrate on what kind of transition we need between this period and back to the peace process,

I am not going to raise any expectations at this stage. This is going to be a difficult process of rebuilding the trust and confidence between Palestinians and Israelis,

All I can say is that this is a necessary step.

The house was damaged. The extent of the damage is not yet known. It also is not known if anyone was injured inside the house.

The essential element here is not to waste time. It is also important to revive, in the minds of Palestinians and Israelis, hope in peace.

And maybe and only maybe, the answer to this mess, to these killings fields out there, is not more incursions, not more tanks,

a monitoring system so they can tell the Israelis what the Palestinians are doing and what they are not doing.

The least important issue today is my resignation. The real issue is the lives of Palestinians and Israelis, breaking the vicious cycle and reviving the peace process and putting it back on track.