Following are excerpts of a June 24, 1998 Voice of Israel interview with Joel Singer, former Legal Adviser of the Israel Foreign Ministry and the man responsible for drawing up the Oslo Accords:

"Q: This matter of the Palestinian Authority's intention to change its status, the status at the United Nations, is this a violation of the accords?

Singer: I have no doubts about it and I wrote this a few years ago that it would be a violation of the agreement and not just a minor violation but a most fundamental violation of the accord. I have repeatedly said that if the Palestinian side were to declare a Palestinian state or initiate any process whose intention would be to bring about the upgrading of the status of the autonomy at the United Nations to the status of a state then this would be a flagrant violation of the agreement, a violation so fundamental that it would permit Israel to consider the adoption of very harsh steps in response."