Palestinian President Says He May Accept Offer of 'Proximity' Talks with Israel

Repeating his call for Israel to halt construction of housing on land claimed by Palestinians, Abbas said such a building freeze was essential to reaching an agreement on peaceful coexistence of a Palestinian state and Israel.

“The gate is always open to envoy Mitchell’s proposal,” Abbas told reporters in Tokyo, through a Japanese interpreter. “Israel should stop on-going settlement, then we can start peace talks toward the coexistence of two states.”

Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, frozen since the end of 2008, are poised to restart via the so-called proximity talks with Israel, which would involve the U.S. envoy shuttling between Palestinian and Israeli delegations residing in the same hotel or city. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb. 7 said he hopes peace talks begin soon.

Palestinians broke off a year of formal negotiations to protest Israel’s December 2008 assault on the Gaza Strip. Israel ended the Gaza offensive, which it said was necessary to halt rocket attacks from the Palestinian-controlled territory, while peace negotiations have yet to resume.

“Until now, we did not respond positively to this new proximity approach,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, visiting Japan with Abbas, told reporters yesterday in Tokyo. He said the Palestinians want the discussions to focus on border issues and to last no more than four months. The Palestinian side also wants to know what the plan is should the talks fail and whether the “parameters” of the talks are based on the “Road Map,” a previously agreed framework for negotiations between Israel and Palestinian leaders.