Yasser Arafat said he is ready to advance the deadlocked peace talks with Israel. But the Palestinian Authority president added that if there is no deal by September, Palestinians have the right to declare statehood unilaterally. He also said there is no longer a need to negotiate an outline for a final peace accord. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said the outline could be concluded by May.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.