Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said proximity talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel will resume once they are approved by the PLO's Executive Committee, which he is expected to chair later this week following a tour of Arab countries.
“Despite the lack of conviction of the Israeli side in achieving peace, the committee affirms what was agreed on March 3, 2010, with regard to the time frame for indirect negotiations,” the Arab League said in a statement after a meeting in Cairo.
Abbas is in the United Arab Emirates and will go to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and Egypt on Wednesday, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
“I do not want to lose hope, and prefer to remain hopeful even though I see many hurdles and despite the sense that in Israel there are people uninterested in peace. We still must try to walk this path until we find it,” Abbas said.
In a meeting with Abbas in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, Emirati President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan urged the international community to help relaunch the Middle East peace process.
“We urge the international community to shoulder its responsibilities and relaunch the peace process, to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the region,” official WAM news quoted Sheikh Khalifa as saying.
Direct talks with the Palestinians collapsed when Israel launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008.
Saturday's decision would end more than a year without negotiations between the sides and at least one false start at getting them back to talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is willing to restart negotiations “at any time and at any place” while insisting they begin “without preconditions.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon described Saturday’s Arab League decision as a “positive development.”
The key guarantee given by Washington to the Palestinians to persuade them to enter indirect talks with Israel was a halt to a controversial plan to build 1,600 new settler homes in East Jerusalem, a top Arab official said on Sunday.
“We made a decision on March 2 to support the indirect talks, and then Israel made decisions we objected to. The Americans came back to us and said this will not happen,” Hisham Yusef, chief of staff for Arab League chief Amr Moussa, said. “The assurances take us back to the status quo ante before March 2.”
Amid a flurry of last-minute diplomacy ahead of the talks, US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell is due back in the region for another round of shuttle diplomacy this week.
“President Abbas will meet with Mitchell on Friday,” senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
Netanyahu's office has so far not officially announced a Mitchell meeting, but media reports say the US envoy will see Israeli officials on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Abbas said he would visit the United States in May in order to advance the peace process. “The American understood that establishing a Palestinian state is a strategic American interest, and therefore are investing many efforts in this,” Abbas said.
Netanyahu himself is due in Egypt on Monday to consult President Hosni Mubarak on the latest peace moves.
Erakat said on Saturday that any Israeli construction in disputed East Jerusalem would halt the talks immediately.
“If they build one unit out of the 1,600, we will not go to the talks,” he said.
Despite the signs of progress, violence broke out in the West Bank during a Palestinian protest against the separation barrier Israel is building in the area.
Palestinian medics said four protesters were hit by rubber bullets fired by Israeli forces in Beit Jalla, a village just outside Jerusalem.
— With input from agencies
