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Indirect Palestinian-Israeli talks may restart in March

© RIA Novosti . collageИзраиль, Палестина
Израиль, Палестина - Sputnik International
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Israel and the Palestinian National Authority may resume indirect talks within the next two weeks, a London-based Arab newspaper said on Wednesday, citing Palestinian sources.

Israel and the Palestinian National Authority may resume indirect talks within the next two weeks, a London-based Arab newspaper said on Wednesday, citing Palestinian sources.

Talks came to a halt in December 2008, when Israel launched an attack on the Gaza Strip in a bid to put an end to the firing of homemade rockets at southern Israel by Palestinian militants based in the enclave. The conflict left 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.

Settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, has been the main obstacle to reviving peace talks.

Under the internationally agreed roadmap for Middle East peace, Israel is obliged to freeze all settlement construction activity, and remove unauthorized outposts built since 2001 from the Palestinian territories.

The Al-Hayat newspaper said Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had reportedly agreed to hold indirect talks, but was awaiting approval from the League of Arab States' Committee of Ministers, which is due to hold a meeting next Tuesday.

The talks, to last a maximum of three months, would be held via a U.S. mediator who will manage packages of proposals between the two sides on the final status of a future Palestinian state, including issues relating to East Jerusalem, security, water resources, refugees and the border, the paper said.

According to Al-Hayat, the U.S. will refrain from interfering in the course of the negotiations in the first stage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in late November 2009 that settlement construction would be limited in the occupied West Bank, but not in East Jerusalem. He also said construction would resume in the future. The Palestinians have so far refused to return to negotiations until the construction is completely halted.

In late January, Abbas reiterated the Palestinians' demand during a meeting with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell in Jordan's capital of Amman.

Russia, along with the UN, the United States and European Union, comprises part of the Middle East Quartet of intermediaries for peace efforts.

GAZA, February 24 (RIA Novosti)

 

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