JAPAN: Visiting Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki welcomes peace talks offer from U.S.

Record ID: 463731

  • Title: JAPAN: Visiting Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki welcomes peace talks offer from U.S.
  • Date: 9th February 2010
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 8, 2010) (REUTERS) RIAD MALKI, PALESTINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TAKING SEAT AT NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALIST TAKING NOTES NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) RIAD MALKI, FOREIGN MINISTER FOR PALESTINIAN NATIONAL AUTHORITY SAYING: "We have no problem to that. This is not negotiations. This is a continuation of what he has been doing since he was appointed in January last year." JOURNALIST LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) RIAD MALKI, FOREIGN MINISTER FOR PALESTINIAN NATIONAL AUTHORITY, SAYING: "This proximity talks should focus on one issue only, and that issue is borders because, you know, if we talk about borders, in reality we're not just talking about borders, we're talking about water, we're talking about security, we're talking about Jerusalem." MORE OF THE CONFERENCE CAMERAMAN FILMING THE CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) RIAD MALKI, FOREIGN MINISTER FOR PALESTINIAN NATIONAL AUTHORITY, SAYING: "It is only saving the face of the current American administration's position, instead of saying "we have failed," or "we're giving up" to say let's continue trying this approach. We hope that this approach will lead to something else." MALKI STANDING UP AS AUDIENCE CLAPPING HANDS
  • Embargoed: 24th February 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Reuters ID: LVAQIRK9UHXVMNOXZTAU28WPH4X
  • Story Text: Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki on Monday (February 8) welcomed an offer by the U.S. for peace talks with Israel but said they should be limited to border issues and held within a time frame.
    Malki said the "proximity talks," or the indirect talks between Palestine and Israel with a U.S. mediator shuttling between the two sides, accorded with the efforts that Palestine leader Mahmoud Abbas has been making.
    "We have no problem to that. This is not negotiations. This is a continuation of what he has been doing since he was appointed in January last year," Malki told a news conference for foreign journalists in Tokyo where he's accompanying Abbas for a four-day trip.
    If materialized, the talks would be a restart of dialogues between Palestine and Israel that broke down during a round of fighting in Gaza in December of 2008.
    U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has made more than a dozen visits to the region to try to revive the long-stalled peace talks.
    Malki, however, stipulated that the agenda should be focused on one, comprehensive, agenda: borders.
    "This proximity talks should focus on one issue only, and that issue is borders because, you know, if we talk about borders, in reality we're not just talking about borders, we're talking about water, we're talking about security, we're talking about Jerusalem," said Malki, who also suggested a three month limitation for the duration of the indirect talks.
    Malki added that the new approach will bolster Palestinians' trust to Washington's commitment to resolve armed conflicts in the region.
    "It is only saving the face of the current American administration's position, instead of saying "we have failed," or "we're giving up" to say let's continue trying this approach. We hope that this approach will lead to something else," said Malki.
    Such shuttle diplomacy could allow Abbas to pursue a peace deal without dropping his settlement freeze demand.
    Abbas has said he would return to the negotiating table only after Israel stopped building settlements in the occupied West Bank. He deemed 'insufficient' a limited construction freeze announced by Netanyahu last November.
    But Abbas told Britain's Guardian newspaper earlier last week that the "proximity talks" could be a way to restart the negotiating process.
    Abbas said last Saturday (February 6) that he had asked the United States to clarify its mediation for the indirect peace talks with Israel before he would announce any decision to resume the negotiations.
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