Talks in Amman between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on Wednesday will be the “last” exploratory meeting between the two sides, a Palestinian official said. “The last exploratory meeting will be held in Amman between us and the Israeli side and there will be no extension of these meetings after today,” the official said on condition of anonymity ahead of the evening discussions. Negotiators from both sides have held four rounds of “exploratory” talks in Jordan since January 3, under the supervision of the international peace-making Quartet, in a bid to restart direct talks on hold since September 2010.
The talks are part of a timeline that the Quartet — which consists of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia — proposed on October 26. The group called for both sides to submit proposals on territory and security within three months as part of a bid to restart direct talks with the goal of reaching a final agreement within a year. The Palestinians say they submitted their proposals before the January 26 deadline, but accuse Israel of failing to offer their own proposal and have warned they will not continue to hold talks after the deadline. They also want Israel to agree to halt settlement construction during talks and to use the lines that existed before the 1967 Six Day War as a basis for negotiations on borders. But Israel says it wants talks without preconditions and it disagrees with the Palestinians on the deadline for the submission of proposals to the Quartet.
It argues the three-month period began from January 3, when the exploratory talks kicked off, and not from October 26.
