Arab Ministers Support Direct Israeli-Palestinian Talks With Conditions

Arab foreign ministers have given their backing to direct talks between Palestinian and Israeli leaders, provided a schedule and an agenda are agreed on beforehand, Qatar’s Foreign Minister Hamad Bin Jasim Bin Jaber al-Thani said.

“The direct talks have to have a time frame,” Al-Thani told reporters in Cairo. “We didn’t talk about when and how to launch the direct talks.” The timing would be decided by the Palestinians, he said, and a message outlining the Arab position had been sent to President Barack Obama.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was ready to begin direct peace talks “within days.” His response came in a text message to reporters.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo today presented the 13 foreign ministers who make up the Arab Peace Initiative Committee with the results of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians conducted by U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell. Obama has been trying to persuade Netanyahu and Abbas to move to direct talks.

Obama said on July 6 that direct Israel-Palestinian talks may start within three months. Abbas has said he wants a complete halt to the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank before meeting Netanyahu face-to-face.

The Arab League endorsed the U.S.-brokered negotiations in May and gave them four months to produce tangible results.

Saudi Talks

The summit follows a meeting late yesterday in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah. The Saudi monarch is the sponsor of a draft peace agreement, drawn up in 2002 and endorsed by 22 countries, that proposes normalization of relations between Israel and Arab states in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories.

Abbas suspended peace negotiations with Israel after its 2008 military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the militant Islamic group Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and Israel.

“The Palestinian leadership still has the desire to make peace based on the implementation of the world’s resolutions, but Israel, so far, hasn’t shown any seriousness,” Jamal Mehesen, a senior member of Abbas’ ruling Fatah party, told Voice of Palestine radio today.

Netanyahu on July 26 told a parliamentary committee that a 10-month freeze on settlement construction, which expires in September, still stands.

Cairo Meetings

Abbas and Netanyahu separately held talks with Egypt’s President Mubarak in Cairo on July 18, though they didn’t meet each other. Netanyahu later flew to Amman to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah on July 27, where the two leaders discussed ways of restarting direct talks ”that would resolve all final status issues” in line with a two-state solution, the official Petra News Agency said.

Jordan became the second Arab country to sign a treaty with Israel in 1994 after Egypt signed a peace accord in 1979.

To contact the reporter on this story: Abdel Latif Wahba in Cairo at alatifwahba@bloomberg.net

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