MADRID, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- The latest peace talks between the Spanish government and the Basques reportedly have made little progress.
The Madrid meeting between Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Basque premier Juan José Ibarretxe centered on "political normalization" of the Basque region.
Jordi Sevilla, the Spanish public administration minister, told EFE "there is identity of points of view as to the need to end violence, and that must include the disappearance" of the terrorist organization ETA.
ETA's dissolution is "an inescapable condition for pursuing any normalization process, because the only abnormal thing is terrorism and violence," said Sevilla. He said the Basque leader "and all Basques" agree on that.
The government's position, he insisted, is that the all-party round table proposed by Ibarretxe would not be valid unless ETA were out of the picture.
