Ramallah: The Arab League Follow Up Committee has agreed on giving a last chance to the US to resume negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
A senior Fatah official familiar with the negotiations told Gulf News that the Arabs want a timeframe to resolve the dispute.
The official said that the last-chance strategy will hopefully put pressure on the Israeli government to accept the peace process.
The official said that the Americans are making huge efforts to bring the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians to success. He said that the form of negotiations the Americans are currently suggesting involves slowing down the colony construction in the West Bank but not freezing it.
He said Americans are suggesting what they described as “indirect negotiations” where the Americans will hold talks with the Palestinians and the Israelis separately.
The official, however, said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed disappointment over the way the Americans have been handling the negotiations.
He said that Abbas has expressed his disappointment to US Middle East Special Envoy George Mitchell during their meeting in Ramallah on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Wednesday that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was committed to Mitchell’s suggestions and that Israel would agree on discussing the core issues in the indirect negotiations.
Haaretz said that so far, Netanyahu has refused to negotiate borders, colonies and the status of occupied Jerusalem before the issue of security arrangements was fully resolved.
