TOKYO: Palestinians are weighing indirect peace talks with Israel to be mediated by the United States, Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki said Monday, adding that they should focus on border issues.
Echoing comments by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over the weekend, Al-Malki also said he needed more information from Washington, along with support from Arab states, before making a commitment to the US offer on the peace talks.
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 a war in Gaza in December 2008.
“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 on Jerusalem would all be covered by such discussions. Al-Malki, visiting Tokyo with Abbas, added that the time frame 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 terms of reference for the proximity talks.
The Palestinian Authority meanwhile said Monday it would hold local elections in the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on July 17. “The completion of this democratic process is one of the building blocks of the national authority’s program and the government’s plan to complete the building of the institutions of a state,” the government said in a statement. The last municipal elections were held in 2006 and saw Hamas win a majority in several large towns in both territories.
Hamas rejected the government’s decision. “The illegal government of Fayyad has no right to call for local municipal elections, said Gaza-based Hamas legislature Ismail Al-Ashqar in reference to the PA led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
