Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi has said she expects no tangible results or real progress from the current visit to the Middle East by American envoy Dennis Ross.

Ashrawi told Palestinian radio in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that the Palestinian side was demanding that the United States take a "firm" position with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

"Even if Ross were not coming to visit the region, we have learned from our experience that Netanyahu will come up with all kinds of excuses to weasel out of the obligations in the agreements ...

"We do not expect Netanyahu to do what Dennis Ross asks now, nor do we expect him to deal with the substantial issues," Ashrawi said.

Ashrawi said the Palestinian side would not deal with procedural or minor issues.

"We do not wish to hold meetings merely for the sake of holding meetings ...

"We do insist that things remain within the framework of the agreements and within the framework of the agenda approved in Washington," she said.

"The Israeli side lacks the political will to implement the agreements or to make any real tangible progress. We do not expect there to be any change. We do demand, however, that the US take a firm position and not be deceived by these attempts."

Palestinian negotiators were not interested in discussing the maps currently under discussion in Israel because they contradicted existing agreements.

"In spite of all our efforts to make the peace process binding and to make Dennis Ross adhere to substantial matters and to try to solve the significant issues, we realize that Netanyahu will once again try to use the current crisis as an excuse to prevent any progress," Ashrawi said.

"I do not, therefore, expect any tangible success or true progress in this process. On the contrary, Netanyahu will use this crisis and David Levi's resignation and the slight majority the support of which he enjoys at the Knesset in order to justify his inability - as he claims - to make concessions."

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.  
 

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