Palestinian Official Collapses During Heated Negotiations Upcoming Jewish Holidays Threaten To Slow Talks

The PLO and Israel briefly suspended negotiations early Friday when a key Palestinian negotiator collapsed as talks reached a high emotional pitch.

But officials said the sides were close to agreement and would go on.

Ahmed Qureia, the Palestinians’ economy minister, was rushed to a hospital in the nearby Israeli resort of Eilat. He was said to be suffering from exhaustion and high blood pressure after more than 50 hours of negotiations since Sunday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told reporters Qureia, known by the nom de guerre Abu Alaa, had collapsed as negotiations were at a high pitch.

“We were in the negotiating room and then there was a lot of emotion, and the argument was rising,” he said. “Abu Alaa received a telephone call and suddenly as he was talking on the phone he collapsed.”

Peres accompanied Qureia to the hospital since he does not have the proper papers to enter Israel. He told reporters as he left that he still hoped the two sides could reach agreement Friday on expanding Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank.

“We have finished almost everything,” he said. “There is a fair chance we shall sign an agreement soon enough.”

Later, Peres returned from the hospital saying Qureia was suffering from high blood pressure. Marwan Kanafani, spokesman for PLO leader Yasser Arafat, said the two sides were continuing the talks without Qureia.

“We have all been suffering from no sleep. We have been working hard, especially at night,” Arafat said.

Earlier, Kanafani suggested the negotiators might not reach an agreement until October because of Jewish holidays that begin Sunday with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

Kanafani said progress has been made in the negotiations in this Red Sea resort but not enough.

“We have achieved 90 percent of the job, and we are working on the remaining 10 percent,” he said.

Expanding autonomy to the West Bank would be the second stage in the Israeli-PLO pact signed at the White House in September 1993, but the talks are more than a year behind schedule.