Middle East peace talks get under way

After five years of diplomatic deadlock, substantive peace talks got under way last night in Jerusalem with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators attempting what many consider an impossible mission – reaching a comprehensive peace agreement within nine months.

A media blackout was in place and the American mediators did not announce the time and location of the talks.

The negotiations, which will alternate between Jerusalem and the West Bank , are being mediated by veteran US diplomat Martin Indyk.

Heading the Israeli team is justice minister Tzipi Livni, who also headed peace discussions with the Palestinians as foreign minister under prime minister Ehud Olmert.

Veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat heads the Palestinian team.

The low-profile approach to the talks from both sides reflects an underlying pessimism that the huge gaps on all the core issues cannot be bridged: that the maximum that Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu can offer falls short of the minimum Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas could accept.

Israeli defence minister Moshe Ya’alon set the tone ahead of the talks.“We set ourselves the goal of nine months in which we will try to reach something with the Palestinians. We’ve been trying for 20 years since Oslo, and for over 120 years of the conflict. The scepticism in the tone of my remarks is apparent, but we’ve decided to give it a chance.”

An Israeli official insisted that Mr Netanyahu was genuinely committed to a two-state solution in order to keep Israel a Jewish democracy, and to fend off international attempts to delegitimise it.

But the official said: “He also believes that a Palestinian state that looks like Gaza does today – hostile, in the Iranian orbit, and one that fosters terrorism against Israel – is something that we cannot afford.”

Pledge fulfilled
Ahead of the Jerusalem talks Israel fulfilled a pledge to release 26 long-term Palestinian prisoners. Eleven of them received a hero's welcome at the presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah where they were met by thousands of supporters at a ceremony addressed by Mr Abbas.

“This is the first group,” he told the crowd. “We shall continue until we free all the prisoners from Israeli jails.”

In another gesture to the Palestinians, Israel has offered to transfer the bodies of dozens of militants who were buried in Israel. Mahmoud Al-Zahar, an official from Hamas, which controls Gaza, warned that no agreement reached by Mr Abbas would be binding on his party.