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Palestinian Authority maintains secret peace talks with Israel

May 12, 2014 at 10:56 am

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel are continuing secret peace talks brokered by the US administration, Palestinian news agency Quds Net reported today.

Quds Net said information about the secret meetings was revealed recently and confirmed by both the Palestinian and Israeli sides. It said that the meetings are being held in Amman and Jerusalem.

“Talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis are continuous,” Quds Net reported sources as saying, “and there are no changes on the agreed upon schedules.”

The sources also said that there was no limit specified for the talks and the two sides agreed to start talking about the issues of security and borders because Jordan is heavily connected to these matters.

In addition, the sources said: “The two negotiation teams agreed to continue talks until they reach a final deal despite the Palestinian Authority’s bids to join international conventions and organisations.”

According to the sources, US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive in the region this week in order to hold a series of meetings with the Palestinian and Israeli sides, including PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Kerry is to agree on bold guidelines for the “second round” of peace talks with Abbas.

Previous news reports said Kerry had dissolved his negotiation team after the peace talks had come to an end without an agreement. However, spokeswoman for the US State Department Marie Harf described the talks as “suspended”.

She denied that Kerry, who has led US efforts to mediate the talks, had disbanded his negotiations team. “As we assess the next steps in the US efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, it is premature, quite frankly, to speculate on what those steps will be or what will happen,” she said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said last week that the Palestinian negotiating team remains in contact with Washington over reviving the stalled peace talks.