No breakthrough, but more sessions planned

by Hani Hazaimeh, Jordan Times

AMMAN — Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on Tuesday said the talks Amman hosted between the Palestinians and Israeli negotiators were held in a “positive atmosphere and reflected the seriousness of both sides to reach substantive results”.

Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat represented the Palestinian side, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s envoy, Yitzhak Molcho.

Judeh announced that the two sides agreed to resume their talks in Amman.

“Today we have seen the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides for more than 16 months, the fruit of extensive efforts made by His Majesty King Abdullah,” Judeh said.

Amman has for the past few months sought to break the stalemate in the peace process, Judeh added at a press conference following a series of meetings involving key players, including Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair and the Quartet members, who represent the US, the EU, the UN and Russia.

He said that there was no breakthrough yesterday in the talks, but the two sides “expressed their commitment to the contents of the Quartet statement” issued in September on which the discussions will be based.

The statement, he noted, mainly called for realising tangible achievements starting with the issues of borders and security to address later all the final status issues.

Judeh underlined that the Palestinians presented their proposal on the borders and security issues, which they had handed to the Quartet but Israel refused to receive it from a third party.

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