We’ll declare statehood by ’99: Yasser Arafat

The five-year autonomy period began in May 1994 with limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza.

Talks on a permanent peace agreement have not yet begun because Israel and the Palestinians are still arguing over parts of the interim agreement.

For example, Israel has yet to start pulling back troops in the West Bank in three stages, as promised earlier this year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would not hand over any land until Arafat has made a bigger effort to rein in Islamic militants responsible for more than a dozen suicide bombings in Israel since 1994.

He has also refused to halt settlement construction temporarily.Arafat said yesterday that he would bring his people statehood as promised, regardless of the state of the negotiations.

“I want to tell them that we will be able to implement what we promised our people,” Arafat said after meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy.

“The interim agreement is five years. Three years of it has passed, and we are waiting for the next two years to declare (statehood),” Arafat said in halting English. “At the end of the five years, our target will be to establish our independent state.”

In an interview with the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot published yesterday, Arafat said: “We will declare the establishment of a state whether Netanyahu wants us to or not.. even if part of the state remains under occupation and contains settlements.”

Arafat told Yediot he preferred to win statehood as a result of negotiations, but that he might be forced to make a declaration on his own because of the deadlock in the talks. Arafat said the Palestinians have already raised such a possibility with governments around the world, and that the response has been positive. He did not elaborate. Netanyahu’s senior aide, David Bar-Illan, said a unilateral declaration of statehood would violate earlier agreements “because it prejudices negotiations on the final status.”

Netanyahu has staunchly opposed Palestinian statehood, saying he would only grant the Palestinians autonomy in parts of the West Bank and Gaza strip, with Israel remaining in charge of foreign affairs and external security.