Israeli, Palestinian Negotiators Quietly Meet

Israeli, Palestinian Negotiators Quietly Meet

June 10, 2012

AP - Israeli and Palestinian officials say their negotiators have been meeting quietly in recent weeks in hopes of ending a three-year standstill in peace efforts.

Palestinian officials said Sunday that chief envoy Saeb Erekat has been holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's representative, Yitzhak Molcho. They say the men are trying to set up a meeting between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Negotiations collapsed in December 2008 and remain frozen. The Palestinians want Israel to halt settlement construction on occupied lands. Netanyahu wants talks to start without any preconditions.

An Israeli official confirmed "ongoing contacts" between the sides, and said Israel is ready to consider goodwill gestures to bring Abbas to the negotiating table.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing sensitive diplomatic contacts.

Palestinian-Israeli negotiators Meet

April 4, 2012

AFP - Palestinian and Israeli top negotiators met yesterday in an attempt to break a freeze in the talks held over the past few months under Jordanian sponsorship.

Sources confirmed to The Jordan Times the meeting took place, bringing together Palestinian top negotiator Saeb Erekat and his Israeli counterpart Yitzhak Molcho.

The meeting is the fruit of efforts by Jordan to get the two parties together, the sources said.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Sabah Rafie said Jordan did not “host nor attend” the meeting as reported earlier.

Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh late Wednesday told Jordan Television that Amman has succeeded in “breaking the stalemate” between the Palestinians and Israelis, citing “communication currently under way” between the two sides. He stopped short of mentioning the Erekat-Molcho Wednesday meeting. He said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to send a letter to Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to reply.

Agence France-Presse reported yesterday from Jerusalem that Netanyahu is to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the coming weeks, quoting Israeli and Palestinian officials as saying on Wednesday.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Fayyad,” Israeli premier’s spokesperson Ofir Gendelman said in a statement posted on his official Twitter feed.

He initially said the meeting would take place next week, but later clarified that it would occur after the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins at sundown on Friday and ends on April 13.

Palestinian officials confirmed the meeting and that Fayyad would hand Netanyahu a letter from Abbas about the stalled peace process.

“A Palestinian delegation will take a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” Nimr Hammad, an adviser to Abbas told AFP on Wednesday.

He said Fayyad would be joined by senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo and negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Visiting US envoy David Hale was meeting Fayyad early on Wednesday evening and was scheduled to see Abbas later, Palestinian officials said. Hale met with Judeh on Tuesday over developments in the peace process. Netanyahu’s office did not say if Hale would also meet the Israeli side during his current trip. Gendelman said that Netanyahu would send his own letter to Abbas after the talks.

“Prime minister’s envoy Molcho will deliver a letter from the prime minister to President Abbas following the meeting,” he wrote.

Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold since September 2010, but Jordan and the peacemaking Quartet sponsored several rounds of meetings between envoys from each sides in January. Those talks, held in Amman, were intended to pave the way back to direct negotiations, but ended without agreement on how they might resume.

With the process stalled, Abbas has reportedly prepared a letter restating Palestinian terms for returning to negotiations and warning that the status quo risks rendering the Palestinian Authority useless.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Tuesday that the letter would not include any threats by Abbas to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, as had previously been reported. But on Monday, the Palestinian leader said his message would contain a warning for the Israeli leader.

“You have made the Palestinian Authority a non-authority. You have taken from it all its specialisations and commitments,” he said in Cairo, quoting from the letter.

Israel says it wants to return to the talks without preconditions, but the Palestinians want clear parameters for discussions and an Israeli settlement freeze before they resume negotiations, AFP said.