Azzam Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, said that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah's top decision-making body will meet on Saturday and Sunday to discuss the Arab League (AL) offer to give Washington four months to mediate the talks and to give a final answer to the decision.
Al-Ahmad told Arab News that Mitchell would meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah to discuss the offer and to receive the PA's response.
The foreign ministers of the Arab League announced in Cairo Wednesday they were supporting the American initiative for indirect negotiations, qualifying their support with a four-month deadline. They said no progress will be possible without a complete settlement freeze.
The US has been pushing for the resumption of talks primarily through the shuttle diplomacy of Mitchell, who is expected to continue as a go-between in the indirect negotiations.
Mitchell proposed a four-month indirect peace negotiations between Israel and PA sponsored by US administration. Abbas had asked for guarantees that Israel would be committed to the outcomes of the talks.
The Israeli-Palestinian direct negotiations stopped in December 2008 when Israel launched a military campaign on Gaza Strip. Abbas insists that Israel must stop Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before restarting talks.
On Wednesday, Hamas movement slammed the AL for agreeing on a US offer to hold indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Hamas basically rejects any direct peace talks with Israel.
Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, a Gaza-based Hamas leader, said that AL's decision "will prove that indirect talks are even more futile than direct negotiations." "It will prove to the entire world that Israel does not intend to give the Palestinian people their minimal national rights," Al-Zahhar said in a press statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented Wednesday in a Knesset speech that "it seems the conditions for proximity talks are ripening." He said: "All said and done, the world understands that this government is striving for negotiations. It has made some difficult steps to further these negotiations. It said things and did things," he said.
