Palestinian Authority chief negotiator and former Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia has reportedly added a new demand to the long list being negotiated in final status talks with Israel: the PA, he says, will also require an army to defend the new Arab state.
A senior PA official confirmed that the issue was raised in talks at least a week ago, according to the Hebrew newspaper Yediot Aharonot. "At the meeting in question, we raised the demand for a regular army, meant to defend the independent state," a source clarified.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had initially thought Qureia was referring to a further enhanced form of the already existing PA security force, but was quickly enlightened.
I don't hold by just tossing the keys over the border and hoping for the best.
The PA source elaborated, "This isn't an army intended to launch an attack against Israel. We are not asking for F-16 jets, but rather a force that would be able to defend the nation from threats and realize its basic right to exist in security."
It was not clear what threats to its state the PA thought might exist.
Livni was taken aback by the demand, which comes in direct violation of all previous agreements stipulating that any PA state would be a demilitarized entity. She flatly rejected the idea.
The PA, meanwhile, said the 1993 Oslo Accords were not necessarily relevant at this point. "Oslo spoke of an intermediary entity. Now we are talking about a [PA] state born out of a permanent agreement," said the source. "There is no clause in any of the understandings that denies the [PA] state an army with which to defend itself, to defend its borders and citizens."
All of the security concessions demanded of Israel, including those delineated in the American Roadmap plan, have been made on the basis of the Oslo Accords.
Livni, meanwhile, made it clear during her speech last week at the "Facing Tomorrow" presidential conference that any PA state agreed to by Israel will not be one equipped with an army.
"We are talking about a demilitarized state here… There are conditions that will have to be met, before and after. I don't hold by just tossing the keys over the border and hoping for the best."