Arabs meet on Palestinian peace talks with Israel (29/7/2010)
Arab foreign ministers will hold crucial talks with Palestinian Mahmud Abbas on Thursday to decide whether he will begin direct negotiations with Israel amid pressure from the United States.
Abbas has accepted holding only indirect talks with Israel, which has rejected his conditions for face-to-face negotiations.
Thursday's meeting is expected to back Abbas's condition that Israel guarantee a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders between the Jewish state and east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
"The issue is not US pressure, the issue is what is in the Palestinians' interests," Arab League official Hisham Yussef, who heads Secretary General Amr Mussa's office, said.
"Their interest from their perspective is clear -- they want to see progress in the proximity talks and we support them."
Abbas also wants an end to settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel acceded to US pressure to limit settlement building in the West Bank until September, when a moratorium ends.
Abbas will present the 13 foreign ministers of the Arab Peace Initiative committee with the results of the US-brokered indirect talks the Arab League approved in May for a four-month period. |
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