Israel says talks will fail as US envoy to meet Netanyahu

JERUSALEM: Israel said Wednesday indirect talks with the Palestinians were doomed to fail, hours before the US envoy was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the stalled Middle East peace process.

"This won’t work … indirect talks, proximity talks will not yield results," Intelligence Minister and deputy prime minister Dan Meridor said in remarks published on the front page of the Jerusalem Post.

"I hope, yes, but I think not. Everyone will want to pull America to their own side, and they won’t get closer, they will get further apart," he told the English-language daily.

"I think we need to go quickly to direct talks."

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who arrived in the region on Monday, was expected to meet with Netanyahu at around 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) at the Israeli premier’s Jerusalem office to discuss the planned start of indirect talks.

He will then meet with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday, with the indirect talks widely expected to start shortly afterwards.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said: "We hope and expect to formally move forward with proximity talks later this week."

However, Abbas on Tuesday expressed doubts about the planned launch of talks after a West Bank mosque went up in flames, for which he blamed Jewish settlers.

"President Abbas condemns the burning of the mosque in Lubban ash-Sharqiya by extremist settlers and said the responsibility for this criminal attack lies with the Israeli government," he said.

"This criminal attack threatens efforts to revive the peace process."

Although talks are expected to start by the end of the week, both sides have expressed doubt about the commitment of the other to the process.

On Tuesday, a top Israeli military officer accused Abbas of "radiating pessimism regarding the talks".

"He is preparing the ground so that Israel can be blamed for the failure of the talks, if indeed they fail," Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, told a parliamentary committee.

And at the weekend, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat warned that any Israeli construction in disputed east Jerusalem would halt the talks immediately. "If they build one unit out of the 1,600, we will not go to the talks," he said.

The indirect or "proximity" talks were proposed by Mitchell in a bid to revive peace talks that were frozen when Israel launched a bloody 22-day offensive against Hamas insurgents in the Gaza Strip in December 2008.

The Palestinians had agreed in March to take part in the proximity talks but pulled out after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

The move enraged the Palestinians who immediately pulled out of the planned talks and also infuriated Washington as it coincided with a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.

The Palestinians only agreed to return to the negotiating table after receiving US assurances the east Jerusalem plans would be shelved.

Israel has imposed a partial and temporary freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank, but it does not include occupied and annexed east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians want the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel considers the Holy City to be its eternal and indivisible capital.