Israelis, Palestinians OK bid to renew peace talks
JERUSALEM — Israeli and Palestinian representatives met Tuesday for the first time in more than a year and came away with no breakthrough in the long-deadlocked peace process.
But they reported modest progress: an agreement to resume talks about the negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s envoy, attorney Yitzhak Molcho, and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat met with delegates representing the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators in Jordan and later met together with Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s foreign minister.
Judeh hosted Tuesday’s talks at the initiative of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who has long pressed both sides to negotiate. The foreign minister said the meetings were positive.
“We do not wish to raise the bar of expectations, but nor should we underplay the importance of today’s meetings,” Judeh said at a news conference. Tuesday’s meetings will be followed by a series of talks, Judeh said.
Judeh added that from now on, the sides would keep details of the meetings secret. That could boost the chances of progress by easing immediate pressure from Israeli or Palestinian public opinion to not make concessions, experts said.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders are challenged by internal politics. Netanyahu’s conservative, pro-settlement coalition is unlikely to enable a move another settlement freeze.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas faces criticism from various sides, with Hamas assailing the meeting and jailed Fatah leadermarwan Barghouti recently describing the peace process as “dead.”
The developments won’t renew the negotiations just yet but will allow the sides to respond to the initiative of the Quartet: the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia. After the Palestinian bid for U.N. membership in September, the Quartet proposed an outline for renewing negotiations and concluding them by the end of 2012.
The first phase of the outline called on the sides to present proposals on security and territorial issues by the end of January.
Amonth ago, the Palestinians submitted a detailed proposal, including maps accepting a swap of a small portion of Israeli territory for a part of the West Bank occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel has said it will submit proposals only in negotiations but reportedly received the Palestinian document Tuesday and said it would be studied.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Washington was hopeful that the Jordan meeting “can help move us forward on the pathway proposed by the Quartet.”
There was no immediate comment from Israeli or Palestinian officials.
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