Mixed views of prospects of direct Israel-Palestinians talks
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Although the Middle East peace process sounds complicate and the next step is unpredictable, analysts see that there may be some kind of breakthrough in the coming few weeks on the basis of the regional intensive diplomacy.
"There are positive indicators that the Palestinian side will go for direct negotiations with Israel," Emad Gad, an Israeli affairs expert with Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told Xinhua.
"I believe the upcoming meeting of the Arab Peace Initiative Follow-up Committee on Thursday is expected to make resolutions that back the moving to direct negotiations," Gad added.
The Arab Peace Initiative Follow-up Committee meeting will assess the indirect talks and make recommendations for another meeting of the ministers in September.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday stressed that the Palestinians are ready for direct peace negotiations with Israel, denying he is avoiding such talks.
Direct peace talks are "very possible" with the Israelis when settlement activities are frozen and negotiations start with a clear reference on the basis of creating a Palestinian state at the borders of 1967, Abbas said.
Also Jordanian King Abdullah II and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Amman on Tuesday. They talked about ways to get Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to direct negotiations with Israel.
Moreover, it is expected that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz of Saudi Arabia are to discuss on Wednesday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh the Middle East peace process.
"Thursday meeting of the Arab Peace Initiative Follow-up Committee will be an extended one for the Mubarak-Abdullah summit as the Palestinian file will be on top of the agenda," Fakhry Al- Tahtawy, a professor of political affairs at Cairo University told Xinhua.
The Arab League in May approved a U.S. offer to launch indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians to revive the peace process that had stalled since Israel launched a three-week offensive in Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009.
"The upcoming meeting of the Arab Peace Initiative Follow-up Committee will make resolutions that back the moving to direct negotiations," Nabil Zaki, secretary of Arab Affairs Committee of Egypt's Al-Tagamoa Party told Xinhua.
"The reason behind the meeting is to give Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a cover to launch direct talks with the Israelis," Al-Tahtawy said.
Al-Tahtawy expected that Abbas will inform the members of the committee about the current talks with the Israelis, the Europeans or the Americans. He will review the pressure he faces and the guarantees, seeking an Arab support to start the direct negotiations with Israel.
Washington and Israel asked Abbas to resume face-to-face negotiations, which stopped in December 2008, even before the end of four-month U.S.-brokered proximity talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis that started in May.
Hani Khalaf, former assistant of Egyptian Foreign Minister told Xinhua that he expects the meeting will not come up with new things and is just to give Palestinians a legal cover to shift to the direct talks.
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