Netanyahu Sees No Hope for Jerusalem Deal, Paper Says

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he sees no chance of a deal with Palestinians on the future of Jerusalem, according to an interview published Sunday in an Arabic newspaper.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat told Israeli television that he would seek international arbitration if Israel refused to compromise on Palestinian demands for statehood.

The interviews came at a time when Israel and the Palestinians have been wrestling over how to restart peace negotiations.

“There is no possibility that we can agree with the Palestinians on the issue of Jerusalem. It seems as if this is one of the unresolved issues,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying in the daily Al Quds newspaper.

Netanyahu also restated his hard-line opposition to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Arafat responded by suggesting that intervention, perhaps by the United Nations or the World Court in The Hague, would be required to resolve the issues.

“We have to go to arbitration,” Arafat said, “because this is what we have agreed upon, and everyone must respect it.”

Arafat made clear that he wanted East Jerusalem, the sector of the city captured from Jordan in 1967, as the capital of a Palestinian state, but he proposed that Jerusalem could remain united and serve as a dual capital for Israelis and Palestinians.