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New US initiative to restart peace talks: Palestinians

26 January 2010 03:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ayaz Abdulla â€“ APA. The United States has proposed a new initiative to nudge Palestinians back into peace talks with Israel, a Palestinian official told AFP on Monday, APA reports quoting AFP.
The new plan calls on Israel to loosen its hold on some Palestinian-controlled areas, release a number of prisoners and ease a virtual blockade of the Gaza Strip, the official said.
The initiative was aimed at "creating an atmosphere" for the relaunching of peace talks suspended more than a year ago, the official said on condition of anonymity.
He said it was presented by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who met Palestinian and Israeli leaders last week.
Mitchell’s plan calls on Israel to cease military operations in so-called Area A of the occupied West Bank, which is under full Palestinian control, and pull back from some parts of Area B, which is under Palestinian civil control, the official said.
It would also allow Palestinian security forces to enter Area C, which is under complete Israeli military control, and would free a number of Palestinian prisoners, he added.
He said that, under the plan, Israel would ease sanctions on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, allowing rebuilding of the territory, which was devastated during a massive Israeli offensive in December 2008 and January 2009.
Israel would also be bound to transfer customs duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinians to the Palestinian Authority on a monthly basis, the official said.
He said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had requested a meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to discuss the initiative ahead of a formal announcement.
"But Abbas insisted that Israel implement the ideas first, before any talks, considering that these are Israeli obligations. We will consider them goodwill gestures," the official said.
A senior Israeli official told AFP that the United States had suggested "discussions take place initially at the level of teams working on different subjects, before proposing confidence-building measures."
Such a strategy would pave the way for "normal discussions to resume," the official added, without elaborating.
Abbas has not dropped his demand that Israel halt all settlement growth in the occupied West Bank and mostly Arab east Jerusalem ahead of any talks, or his insistance on a framework of guidelines for the negotiations.
Mitchell suggested indirect talks with US mediation to thrash out the main points of the latest initiative and the two Palestinian demands, the official said.
He was speaking a day after Mitchell held a second round of meetings with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and with Abbas in Amman.
Netanyahu said after the meeting that Mitchell had presented "new ideas" but did not elaborate on them.