Although the Palestinian Authority is yet to formally agree, the Arab League foreign ministers backed a U.S. plan to mediate indirect peace talks between Palestinians and Israel.
For some, this offers the most hopeful opening yet for the resumption of official talks between the two sides since they broke down more than a year ago. Reports indicate that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has agreed. For others, this is a "conflict management" strategy that offers little chance of ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The Arab League stressed that the Palestinians would not enter direct negotiations before Israel completely halts Jewish construction activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and has put a four-month window on the indirect talks.
This would be the first move towards a return to "process" since U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office early last year.
Palestinian officials said they want the U.S.-mediated talks to focus initially on defining the borders of a state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that charting the borders of a future Palestinian state, within the four-month negotiating window set by the Arab League, was of paramount importance.
He told reporters there was no point in discussing any other issue without Israeli government acknowledgment of the "principle of two states" along the pre-1967 war borders, "with an agreed land swap."
Asked about Erakat's comments, Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu, said: "The Palestinians can bring to the negotiation all of their concerns, and we will bring ours -- first and foremost Palestinian recognition of Israel's legitimacy as a Jewish state, and demilitarization."
The shuttle talks may commence during American Vice-President Joe Biden's visit. If all goes to plan, he would deliver the official Palestinian notification to Israel stating its willingness to enter indirect talks.
Despite American optimism for the prospects of these talks, many remain skeptical.
George Giacaman, an analyst at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said, "The main issue is conflict management." This political process is meant to fill a void in which further conflict could arise.
"Hardly anyone expects that they will lead to a breakthrough. The experience of 18 years of negotiations is a case in point," he said.
How much such talks could achieve without Palestinian unity is another question.
Mar 4, 2010
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1 comments: on "Indirect Talks Find Support"
Very interesting, but I would take a look at the latest Khaled Mashal interview (http://anbaamoscow.com/main-menu/212.html). You need to pay attention to all sides here.
On an interesting note, the interview was published in the Arabic version of Moscow Today, it really shows how much more involved the Russians are getting in the region.
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