VATICAN (CWNews.com) - The Vatican on Wednesday reaffirmed the right of Palestinians to their "legitimate aspirations" after talks between high-ranking Vatican and Palestinian officials.
Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican foreign minister, met with Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Authority's minister for planning and international cooperation and a senior negotiator in peace talks with Israel. Shaath briefed the archbishop on the failed peace talks at Camp David last month. The issue of the disposition of Jerusalem was the key sticking point in the talks.
A statement issued after the meeting confirmed that Archbishop Tauran "confirmed the Holy See's support for the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people" and reiterated the Vatican's support for international guarantees for holy places in Jerusalem. The proposal had been rejected by the participants in the peace talks, although the concordat signed by the Vatican and the Palestinians in February called for an international status for Jerusalem.
Israel sees Jerusalem as its "eternal and undivided capital," resisting all attempts to exert any outside influence over the city, while Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, taking back the portion captured by Israel from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs