Shalom: Arafat, Abbas never demanded freeze as precondition
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Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom rejected Palestinian demands for a freeze in settlement construction as a condition for direct talks. He claimed that "such demands were never raised in the past, not by Arafat and not by Mahmoud Abbas himself."
The minister added: "We too have demands and we don't push them as conditions for negotiations." (Attila Somfalvi)
