The next 10 days will be key for the future of the Middle East peace talks, a Palestinian spokesman told AFP yesterday as negotiators sought ways to end a standoff over Jewish settlements.
“The next 10 days will be decisive and determine the fate of the direct negotiations with Israel,” Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
“There is a very large international effort made to overcome the obstacles in the way of direct negotiations. In particular, the obstacle of the settlements,” he said.
The dispute over the settlements has threatened to undermine the fledgling efforts by the United States to revive the Middle East peace talks after their official launch in Washington last month following a nearly two-year hiatus.
The Palestinians have repeatedly demanded that Israel extend a 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank which expires this weekend in order for the talks to continue.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to extend the partial ban despite the urging of US President Barack Obama. He has hinted, however, he would confine building to major settlement blocs.
Mr Rudeina stressed that there was still no breakthrough on the thorny issue that has always marred peace talks in the past.
Mr Abbas and senior Israeli officials, including Defence Minister Ehud Barak, are in the United States for talks on the peace process.
Mr Abbas said after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel that “the world must understand our need to halt settlement activity”.
Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon told AFP that the two sides should find a “middle of the road” solution, but that ultimately the future of the settlements will be decided by the borders of the future Palestinian state.
The deadline for the end of the freeze is widely accepted as September 26, 10 months and a day after the original Cabinet decision expires. But a military order regarding the moratorium states will only close on October 1.
Palestinian officials have said that US mediators have suggested a three-month extension of the settlement moratorium.
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said last week that talks between Israelis and Palestinians had made “progress” on the settlements issue.
He also said the two leaders again tackled the issues at the heart of their decades-old conflict – Israel’s security, the borders of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
Some 500,000 Israelis live in more than 120 Jewish settlements across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories expected to form the bulk of a future Palestinian state.