EU foreign policy chief's 'last-ditch' attempt for direct talks

Ramallah: EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was holding talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, a day after the Palestinians declared they were ending all informal talks with Israel.

The meeting, which got under way in Amman, according to the Palestinian office there, was expected to be a last-ditch attempt to persuade the Palestinians not to abandon a series of exploratory talks with Israel over the possibility of renewing direct talks.

Ashton and Jordan's King Abdullah II have been leading international efforts to shore up the fragile dialogue between the two sides ahead of the expiry of a Quartet deadline for the two sides to present proposals on borders and security.

Negotiators from the two sides met late on Wednesday in Amman for their fifth meeting in just over three weeks, after which the Palestinians ruled out any further talks. "Today's meeting was the last and there will be no further exploratory talks with the Israeli side," a senior Palestinian official told AFP after those talks.

Speaking to Gulf News, Mohammad Barakah, a member of the Israeli Knesset and chairman of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, said that the aim of the exploratory talks were to "rearrange" Israeli occupation not end it.

"Both the Palestinians and Israeli's did not change their positions during the talks," he said. "The next period is a real test for the EU. Its time they free themselves from Israeli positions," he said.

The exploratory talks had been intended to lead the parties back to direct talks in accordance with a timeline announced by the Quartet on October 26, which gave both sides three months to submit proposals on territory and security.