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More Palestinian-Israeli talks to be held this week

April 18, 2014 at 9:36 am

The Palestinian and Israeli negotiators will resume their meeting tomorrow or on Wednesday after the two sides yesterday held a meeting which lasted for several hours without any progress; informed Palestinian sources and Israeli media reported.


Palestinian sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “The meeting ended yesterday and the positions of the Palestinian and Israeli sides are still the same while the gap between them still exists.”

Israel’s public radio said: “The negotiators will return to meet either on Tuesday or on Wednesday in the presence of the US envoy to the peace process in the Middle East Martin Indyk who will return to the region from Washington tomorrow.”

Israel’s chief negotiator Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and advisor to Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Molcho met yesterday with the Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and the chief of the Palestinian intelligence services General Majed Faraj.

The negotiators met four times over the past two weeks in the presence of the US envoy but yesterday’s meeting took place without Indyk who was in the United States.

The crisis in the negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis emerged when Israel refused to release the fourth and final group of Palestinian prisoners last month. The Palestinian-Israeli negotiations resumed in July under U.S. auspices in the hope of reaching a peace agreement during the nine months period ending on April 29 but the negotiations did not have any results.

While Israel and the United States want to extend the negotiations for another year the Palestinian Authority demands Israel to freeze the Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory which the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu refuses.