RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said Wednesday that a round of exploratory discussions with Israel under Jordanian auspices had ended. But he left open the possibility of a resumption of contacts under certain conditions and after consultations with Arab League representatives on Feb. 4.
Jordan played host to five meetings this month between Israeli and Palestinian envoys as part of an international effort to get the sides back to formal peace negotiations after a break of more than a year.
Palestinian officials have reported little or no progress in the meetings, the latest of which took place on Wednesday, and had long threatened to stop the talks unless Israel produced comprehensive proposals on borders and security by Thursday.
That deadline echoed a request made Oct. 26 by the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — for both sides to produce such proposals within three months. Israel says the three-month period started only once the sides met Jan. 3, and that the deadline is in April. The international participants have been pressing the sides to find a way to extend the discussions, by trying to persuade the Israelis to offer some confidence-building steps that would make it more difficult for the Palestinians to walk away.
One measure that has been mentioned is the release of Palestinian prisoners, which the Palestinians have formally requested.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, is currently in the region for meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, told reporters on Wednesday that he would visit Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan next week to try to help.
Mr. Abbas spoke after a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Amman. “If we demarcate the borders, we can return to negotiations, but Israel does not want to do that,” he said in remarks carried by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The previous, brief round of direct talks broke down in September 2010 when a 10-month Israeli moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank expired. The Palestinians have since been demanding a halt to Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and an Israeli acceptance of the pre-1967 lines as the basis for the border of a Palestinian state before resuming formal negotiations. Israel insists on negotiations with no preconditions.
Mr. Abbas said that after the end of this round of discussions the Palestinians would consult with King Abdullah and with the Arab League follow-up committee on Feb. 4, after which a decision would be made.
Ms. Ashton called for a continuation of the exploratory talks during a visit to Gaza on Wednesday, telling reporters that they should grow into “genuine negotiations.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel met with Ms. Ashton on Wednesday evening. “We are trying to ensure that the talks between us and the Palestinians continue,” he said. “That is our desire, and I hope to discuss with you ways in which we can make sure that is what happens.”
The final meetings in Jordan were tense. On Saturday, there was an open clash between the Israeli envoy, Yitzhak Molho, and the Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, according to a Palestinian official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. Mr. Molho brought an Israeli military expert to the meeting to present an outline of Israel’s security concerns. Mr. Erekat strongly objected because the sides were not supposed to be conducting negotiations at a technical level and the Palestinians had not brought an expert of their own.
Palestinian leaders have been facing tough questions from their own politicians and the public about their readiness to hold even preliminary talks in Jordan without longstanding conditions having been met.
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