Reuters
Palestinian Minister to Israel: We Want Peace
Date: Fri Nov 12
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian cabinet minister told Israel on Friday "we want peace" and urged the Jewish state to pull back troops from Palestinian cities to assist elections after Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s death.
"If you are ready for peace we can do it, we can make it," Saeb Erekat told Israeli Channel Two television. "We want peace and we are committed to peace."
He was speaking from the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Arafat was buried amid chaos earlier on Friday.
Erekat urged Israel to withdraw troops from Palestinian areas they returned to after the outbreak of an uprising four years ago. He said their continued presence would hamper presidential elections due within 60 days.
"If we can do these elections, if we can legitimize the new leaders of the Palestinian people through elections, I believe this will be the turning point toward democracy, accountability, peace and transparency," he said.
Israel has held out the possibility of a new era of peacemaking after Arafat, on condition a new Palestinian leadership under reformist politicians stops attacks on Israelis.
SOURCE
Search Yahoo for original story (if it's a story from Yahoo) if they've since changed it from the one I linked to (this happens quite a bit lately and I don't have the time anymore to hunt the original story down) :
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