COMMENTS BY Palestinian and Israeli leaders yesterday raised serious doubts over prospects for renewing stalled Middle East peace talks in the near future.
Speaking at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas reiterated the Palestinian position. “We won’t agree to resume negotiations without a full settlement freeze, especially in Jerusalem, for a certain period,” he said.
Earlier, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office put out a statement stressing that Israel would not share sovereignty in Jerusalem nor retreat to the 1967 borders.
The comments follow hints from various officials over the last few weeks that Washington was working on a new initiative to break the diplomatic deadlock.
The last bilateral peace talks took place in December 2008.
After Mr Netanyahu became prime minister in March 2009, the Palestinian leadership linked a resumption of peace talks to a total settlement freeze by Israel, including in east Jerusalem.
Israel declared a partial, 10-month building moratorium in settlements, but building throughout Jerusalem continued.
US national security adviser Jim Jones was due in Israel yesterday, and president Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is expected to pay another visit to the region shortly.
Mr Mitchell met the EU’s new foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, in Brussels yesterday as well as Middle East quartet envoy Tony Blair.
Yesterday’s comments by Mr Netanyahu were in response to a statement by Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who said that after the recent visit to Egypt by the Israeli prime minister, he believed Israel would be willing to discuss the Palestinian demand for east Jerusalem to become the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Mr Gheit also said that Israel was willing to concede the entire West Bank.
Three senior Israeli officials travelled to Egypt this week for talks aimed at finalising a formula acceptable to all sides for the renewal of peace talks. Egypt has played a key role in the past as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.