Global General
Palestinians, Israelis to talk on border
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-09 09:00
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Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki said on Monday that the proposed US talks with Israel should focus on border issues. Israel's Haaretz Newspaper previously confirmed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to hold talks with Israel.
The talks will be indirect negotiations conducted by US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell.
Echoing comments by Abbas over the weekend, Malki also said he needed more information from Washington, along with support from Arab states, before making a commitment to the US offer for the peace talks.
Some high-ranking Palestinian officials stressed that international supervision is a prerequisite for such talks.
"Experience shows that Israel violates the deals it brokers with us," he added, referring to Israel's "obligations" in the US-backed Road Map peace plan which, in one of its key components, required Israel stop settlement expansions in occupied Palestinian territories.
An Israeli cabinet minister said last week that Israel and the Palestinians would begin "proximity talks", with a US mediator shuttling between negotiating teams, to restart negotiations that broke down at the start of the war in Gaza in December 2008.
According to Abed Rabbo, international guarantees "would enable the international community to intervene on the level of the UN Security Council and oblige Israel to respect the deals."
"These proximity talks should focus on one issue only. That issue is borders," Al-Malki told a news conference, adding that this is because issues of water, security and concerns over Jerusalem would all be covered by such discussions.
Al-Malki, visiting Tokyo with Abbas, added that the timeframe for the proximity talks should be limited to a maximum of three to four months.
Al-Malki said he needed to hear more about what Washington has in mind for the proximity talks.
"And we need to know what if these talks fail - what will be the position of Americans and what will they do?" Al-Malki added.
If the answers to these questions from the US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell are acceptable, Palestinians will discuss the idea with Arab leaders and, if they supported it, the Palestinian response to the offer would be positive, he said.
But he added: "We cannot really say in advance we are committed without really getting assurances that this process will be meaningful and lead to something tangible."
Al-Malki said he saw no difference so far between the proposed proximity talks and the shuttle diplomacy employed by Mitchell, who has made more than a dozen visits to the region to try to revive the long-stalled peace process.
He added that the idea of proximity talks was Washington's way to save face by trying to show that it was not giving up.
Abbas has said he will only return to peace negotiations if Israel completely stops settlement-building in the occupied West Bank. He has said a limited, 10-month construction freeze ordered by Israel in November is insufficient.
Israel has said it will continue to build homes for Jews in and around East Jerusalem, territory captured in 1967 and annexed as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.
Palestinians want the city as the capital of any future Palestinian state.
US President Barack Obama disappointed Abbas last year when he softened his demand for a settlement building freeze, instead calling on Israel to exercise restraint in construction in the lands it captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Xinhua-Reuters-
Haaretz Newspaper
