RAMALLAH, West Bank: Chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday that proximity talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel have formally started.
"We can now say that the indirect talks have started and they will last for four months," Erekat told reporters following a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell who is mediating the talks.
Erekat said all final-status issues are on the table. Those include defining a border for a future Palestinian state, a decision on the fate of Palestinians who were driven out of or fled what is now Israel and the status of Jerusalem.
He made it clear that "there will not be direct talks with Israel. The talks are with the American side." Mitchell has been in the region since Monday trying to bridge gaps between the Palestinians and Israel.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will head the Palestinian negotiations team. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee and the Fatah Central Committee on Saturday gave Abbas the green light to start indirect negotiations with Israel.
"We hope that the Israeli government (of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) will comply with the US administration’s efforts to give the peace process a chance" Erekat added.
Netanyahu told his Cabinet early Sunday that Israel expected the indirect negotiations to lead to direct talks, declaring: "It is impossible to make peace at a distance." He said no one should expect that "we will arrive at decisions and agreements on matters that are critical ... without sitting together in the same room".
The prime minister said the indirect talks would begin "without preconditions", an apparent reference to US and Palestinian demands to curb construction of homes for Jews in and near East Jerusalem. But no new Israeli housing projects in East Jerusalem have been approved since March, raising speculation he has imposed a de facto moratorium that could keep negotiations ticking while avoiding a showdown with far-right coalition partners.
The Israeli daily Haaretz on Sunday quoted a high-level Israeli official as saying that the US administration has informed Abbas that it will not unveil mediation proposals or a Middle East peace plan before the start of direct, substantive talks between the two sides on final-status issues.
The official added that Israel would take some steps in the coming weeks to ease tension between the sides. They include the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the removal of additional checkpoints and the transfer of some West Bank areas to Palestinian security control.
Last week, the Arab League, which held a meeting of foreign ministers of its member states in Cairo, extended its support for the proximity talks. The first attempt to get the indirect talks going was aborted soon after it began in March when Israel announced a new settlement project in West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.
Arab News
