The Philippine government said on Friday it wanted to resume talks with Muslim militants early next month to kickstart negotiations for a peace settlement that seem to have stalled recently.
The chief government negotiator, Miriam Ferrer, and her Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) counterpart Mohagher Iqbal agreed during a brief meeting in Norway early this week to resume formal talks in early July.
Senen Bacani, a government official, said the next meeting should help the government achieve its goal to reach agreement on the detailed terms of a peace settlement this year. He said, "I am very hopeful that we will finish this comprehensive agreement in a month or two."
However MILF vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar was not as optimistic, saying the militant group's leadership had yet to approve the government proposal for a fresh round of formal talks. He said, "Those (talks in July) is what we have been hearing very recently but we have not yet officially received such a proposal." |