Palestinians seek Arab League backing to resume peace talks with Israel

Palestinians seek Arab backing for Israel talks

CAIRO — The Palestinians are seeking the Arab League’s backing Saturday to resume peace talks with Israel through a U.S. mediator.

A first attempt to get indirect talks going collapsed last month when Israel announced a new Jewish housing project in east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as a future capital. That drew fierce criticism from the United States and led to the worst rift in decades between Washington and its chief Mideast ally.

Foreign ministers from several top Arab League member nations will meet in Cairo Saturday to decide whether to endorse the indirect talks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signaled earlier in the week that he would be willing to resume negotiations, telling an Israeli TV station that he would present the U.S. proposal to the Arab League and that “we hope that the reply will be positive.”

The talks, however, will not be the face-to-face meetings the Obama administration had hoped to put in place more than a year after peace efforts broke down amid Israel’s military offensive on Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The Palestinians have refused to sit down at the same table with Israel until it agrees to freeze all construction in West Bank settlements and in east Jerusalem — two areas that the Palestinians want for an independent state along with the Gaza Strip.

The indirect talks, with U.S. envoy George Mitchell shuttling between the two sides, were meant as a compromise.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the talks would get started next week.

The Palestinians, however, were still waiting for backing from the 22-member Arab League.

Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi cautioned that the Palestinians would still be waiting to see stronger Israeli compromises on settlement construction.

“If it is to succeed then there are requirements that have to be fulfilled in order to give Mitchell’s shuttle diplomacy … some credibility and substance,” she said. “Of course we need to see on the ground that Israel has stopped settlement activities in Jerusalem, around Jerusalem and everywhere else.”