Erekat Key Candidate to Lead Palestinians in Proximity Talks
March 10, 2010 | In: World News
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat is the most prominent candidate to lead the Palestinian team in indirect negotiations with Israel, an official said Tuesday.
Erekat, the head of the negotiations department at Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), “is the luckiest one to lead the Palestinian side in the negotiations,” said Jamal Muhissen, a senior official from President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.
Abbas will reveal the names of the negotiation crew in the coming days, Muhissen told Xinhua, denying reports that Fatah’s Central Committee had recommended some members for the team.
The indirect talks are likely to start later this month after the Arab League (AL) and the Palestinian leadership approved a U.S. offer to hold proximity talks to revive the stalled peace process.
On Monday, George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, met President Abbas on the resumption of talks with Israel amid rising doubts, while Israel on Monday approved to expand a settlement near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Nabil Abu Rdineh, a spokesman for Abbas, said the expansion of Beitar Illit settlement “is a blow” to the U.S. efforts to revive the peace talks. “The Israeli government tries to put more obstacles before peace-reviving efforts, even when Mitchell is in the region.”
Abbas used to urge Israel to stop all settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before the two sides resume negotiations, and he sees indirect talks are not at odds with his position.
During his meeting with Mitchell, Abbas called on Washington to recognize a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital if the U.S.-mediated negotiations failed.
