MIDDLE EAST: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will hold first face-to-face meeting in over a year of deadlock, with Jordan playing host

Record ID: 349525

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will hold first face-to-face meeting in over a year of deadlock, with Jordan playing host
  • Date: 2nd January 2012
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (FILE) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN PRESIDENTIAL COMPOUND WHERE PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT HOLDS MEETINGS PALESTINIAN FLAG OVER COMPOUND
  • Embargoed: 17th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5XEG5X1O1F0V1SIY9OLZ77FB5
  • Story Text: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet this week after more than a year of deadlocked peacemaking, officials said on Sunday, but both sides played down prospects of any imminent resumption of talks.
    Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas gave a deadline of Jan. 26 for the Quartet efforts, saying he would announce further steps if talks failed.
    "This is the time that we talked about, and I am announcing that now as the Quartet said on September 26 that in three months it would bring the parties closer; if efforts do not succeed by January 26 we will have another word," said Abbas.
    Yitzhak Molcho of Israel and Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erekat will meet on Tuesday (January 03) in Jordan alongside representatives of the Quartet of Middle East mediators - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
    Israeli government spokesman Offer Gendelman said he hoped talks would pave the way to more frequent peace talks.
    "We do hope that this meeting will pave the way to regular meetings, peace talks, with the Palestinians, and we are thankful for the Jordanian king's efforts in pushing the peace process forward," he said.
    Negotiations stalled in late 2010 after Israel refused to renew a partial freeze on Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank as demanded by the Palestinians, who want to found a state there and in the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
    Most countries deem the settlements illegal. Israel disputes this, and says it would keep settlement blocs under any peace deal in accordance with understandings it reached in 2004 with then-U.S. President George Bush.
    For its part, the Netanyahu government has censured Abbas for holding power-sharing talks with the rival Hamas Islamists who control Gaza and spurn permanent coexistence with Israel.
    Abbas has also balked at Israel's demand that he recognise it as Jewish state.
    But both sides have been rattled by political upheaval that has bolstered Islamists in Jordan and Egypt, among the few Arab countries to have relations with Israel and where pro-Palestinian sentiment often champions Hamas, rather than Abbas.
    Established a decade ago, the Quartet has in recent months taken a leading role in attempts to broker new negotiations, stepping into the fray following the failure of U.S. President Barack Obama's administration to revive diplomacy.
    Quartet mediators said in October that Israel and the Palestinians sides had agreed to make proposals on issues of territory and security within three months.
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