THE ARRIVAL in Israel today of United States vice-president Joe Biden is expected to herald the announcement of the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, ending 14 months of diplomatic deadlock.
On assuming office US president Barack Obama declared the aim of ending the Arab-Israeli conflict as one of his top foreign policy goals. However, more than a year of pressure from Washington failed to get the sides round the negotiating table.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu refused the Palestinian demand for a comprehensive settlement-building freeze and in return the Palestinians refused to renew direct bilateral talks that were broken off during the war in Gaza last winter.
The US formula for the resumption of negotiations is being termed “proximity talks”, which entails American envoy George Mitchell shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams.
Mr Mitchell, who met Mr Netanyahu yesterday, will hold a further round of talks today with the Israeli leader in Jerusalem before travelling to Ramallah in the West Bank to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Yesterday Mr Mitchell said the goal was a “credible, serious, constructive process that will accomplish the objective which we all share: a comprehensive peace in the Middle East.”
Mr Netanyahu said he hoped direct negotiations would begin soon. “If there is a desire to get to direct talks through a corridor, then I think the sooner the better.”
Saeb Erekat, who will head the Palestinian negotiating team, made it clear that Palestinians insist that direct talks will only occur after Israel stops all building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. “This peace process cannot go on forever,” he said. “Now it’s time for decisions.”
As the talks between Mr Mitchell and Mr Netanyahu took place, the Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee, meeting in Ramallah, gave Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas the green light to begin indirect peace talks with Israel.
PLO spokesman Yasser Abed Rabbo said the talks should focus on drawing a border between Israel and a future Palestinian state, and related security issues.
Last week Arab League foreign ministers endorsed the idea of proximity talks, but set a four-month deadline for the contacts to achieve a breakthrough. If there is no discernable progress after that, the Arab League will refer the issue to the United Nations Security Council.
Israeli minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer from the left-wing Labor Party said yesterday that Jerusalem should be divided under the terms of a final peace agreement, with Arab neighbourhoods in the east of the city coming under Palestinian sovereignty.
His position was in sharp contrast to that of Mr Netanyahu, who maintains that the whole of Jerusalem, including predominantly Arab areas captured during the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day war, remains Israel’s undivided capital.