ISRAELI AND Palestinian negotiators met for the first time in more than a year yesterday, but there was little optimism that the meeting in Jordan would pave the way for the resumption of direct peace talks.
Israel’s Yitzhak Molcho and Palestinian Saeb Erekat met in the presence of quartet envoys from the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, before meeting alone in an effort to reach a formula to get the peace talks back on track. Jordan’s King Abdullah also mediated in an effort to narrow the gaps between the sides.
Both sides played down prospects for a breakthrough and stressed that the talks at the Jordanian foreign ministry did not constitute a resumption of bilateral negotiations broken off in September 2010 when Israel refused a Palestinian demand to renew a freeze on West Bank settlement construction.
Israeli officials said they were willing to renew direct talks but without preconditions. Media reports said Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu had rejected a Palestinian proposal to free Palestinian militants in return for the Palestinians agreeing to return to the negotiating table.
Ahead of the Amman talks, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned that if there was no breakthrough, the Palestinians would take “new hard measures” against Israel. Palestinian officials have already threatened that if the diplomatic deadlock continued, the Palestinians would renew their unilateral bid at the United Nations for international recognition of an independent state.
Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak described the meeting in Jordan as “negotiations about negotiations”, and he stressed the importance of the international community not blaming Israel for the breakdown.
In September, the quartet set a January 26th deadline for both sides to present proposals on security arrangements and borders. However, Israel insisted these be presented during bilateral talks, but the Palestinians want each side to forward their proposals to quartet representatives.