VATICAN CITY (ZT)-Israel's response to the historic signing of an agreement between the Vatican and the Palestinian Liberation Organization was very harsh. A statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed "profound dissatisfaction" with this declaration that addresses the question of Jerusalem. According to the Israeli executive, "Jerusalem was, is, and shall remain the capital of the State of Israel, and no agreement or declaration by these or any other parties will change this fact." The spokesman for the Israeli Ministry went so far as to say that the agreement endangers the peace process in the Middle East.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls, director of the Vatican Press Office, published a statement in response to the above declaration in which he says that the document has nothing to do with the peace process, "but rather regulates the presence and activities of the Catholic Church in territories that depend on the Palestinian Authority."

The Vatican spokesman added: "The only thing this agreement does is to reiterate what was established by pertinent U.N. institutions and by recent agreements between Israeli and Palestinian authorities." Moreover, "as regards the city of Jerusalem, the agreement does not enter into territorial questions or sovereignty issues that affect the two interested parties-Israelis and Palestinians." The document "refers to the universal religious and cultural dimension of the most sacred places of the city, recognized by the international community itself."