US Letters of Assurances on the
Terms of the Peace Conference, Washington, October 1991
Letters of Assurances (LOSs) were issued to each party to the
Conference by the United Sates in mid-October 1991. The following are several of the main
points of the US Letter of Assurance to the Palestinian Side:
- Palestinian and Israelis must respect each others security, identity and political
rights.
- We believe that the Palestinians should gain control over political, economic and other
decisions that affect them and their fate
- The US will seek to avoid any prolongation and stalling by any party. All negotiations
should proceed as quickly as possible toward agreement.
- The U.S. is opposed to Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem and extension of Israeli law
on it and the extension of Jerusalems municipal boundaries. We encourage all sides
to avoid unilateral acts that would exasperate local tensions or make negotiations more
difficult or preempt their final outcome
- The US supports the right of Palestinians to bring any issue including East Jerusalem to
the table
- The purpose of negotiations transitional issues is to effect the peaceful and orderly
transfer of authority from Israel to Palestinians. Palestinians need to achieve rapid
control over political, economic, and other decisions that effect their lives and to
adjust to a new situation in which Palestinians exercise authority in the West Bank and
Gaza.
- Once agreed the interim self-governing arrangements will last for a period of five
years. Beginning the third year of the period of self-governing arrangements, negotiations
will take place on permanent status. It is the aim of the U.S. government that permanent
status negotiations will be concluded by the end of the transitional period.
- The US believes that no party should take unilateral actions that seek to predetermine
issues that can only be reached through negotiations. In this regard the U.S. has opposed
and will continue to oppose settlement activity in the territories occupied in 1967 which
remain an obstacle to peace.
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