Palestinians and Israelis Will Talk This Week
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators plan to meet for the first time in more than a year in Jordan on Tuesday, in an effort to revive moribund peace talks, although none of the sides involved suggested any reason to view the meeting as a sign of significant progress.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry said the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, and the chief Israeli negotiator, Yitzhak Molho, would be joined by officials from Jordan as well as the so-called quartet — Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations — and would later hold a separate meeting.
It would be the first one-on-one meeting between the two sides since September 2010 when the Palestinians ended the talks after Israel did not renew a partial settlement freeze that was in place for 10 months in the West Bank, and resumed construction.
The Palestinians have insisted that the Israelis must again stop settlement building in the West Bank, as well as in East Jerusalem, for negotiations to start again. The Israelis say peace talks should proceed without preconditions.
full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/world/middleeast/palestinians-and-israelis-will-talk-this-week.html
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