ISRAEL HAS accepted the framework proposed last month by the quartet of Middle East peace mediators for renewing direct peace talks with the Palestinians, but Palestinian officials have indicated that the diplomatic deadlock will continue without a settlement construction freeze.
After consultations with senior ministers, the office of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement formally accepting the terms set down by the quartet representatives – the US, EU, Russia and the UN.
“Israel welcomes the quartet’s call to hold direct talks with no preconditions,” the statement read. “Although Israel has a number of reservations which it will raise during negotiations, it calls on the Palestinian Authority to do the same and enter into direct talks without delay.”
The plan, presented at UN headquarters by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, called for bilateral talks to resume within a month and set a target date of the end of 2012 to reach a comprehensive peace agreement.
The Palestinians have still to issue a formal response to the quartet proposals, which came in response to last month’s Palestinian bid to seek UN endorsement for an independent state. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has accused Israel of trying to deceive the international community.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh linked a resumption of talks to a halt in settlement building.
“Returning to the negotiating table requires a commitment by Israel to freeze construction in the settlements and to acknowledge 1967 lines, without deception or avoiding international decisions.”
The quartet plan called on Israel and the Palestinians to present proposals on borders and security within three months and to finalise the other issues, such as the status of Jerusalem and the fate of refugees, by the end of 2012.
The quartet agreed to Israel’s demand that the negotiations should resume without preconditions, but called on the parties “to refrain from provocative actions if negotiations are to be effective”.
Within days of the quartet plan being announced, Israel gave the green light for the construction of 1,100 new homes in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo, built on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Palestinians termed the move a unilateral action designed to create preconditions on the ground and Israel was condemned by the international community, including by all the members of the quartet.
However, Mr Netanyahu argued that Gilo was a neighbourhood of Israel’s capital that would remain part of Israel, even under the terms of a final peace deal.