PLO, Fatah to hold joint meeting on proximity talks

Ma'an – A joint meeting between the PLO's Executive Committee and Fatah's Central Committee is scheduled for Saturday to discuss the final stance on indirect talks with Israel.

President Mahmoud Abbas will preside over the meeting, which will be held at the presidential office in Ramallah, central West Bank.

Abbas is further scheduled to meet US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to pass on the Palestinian Authority's stance on the US-brokered talks.

On Friday evening, following a meeting with Abbas and Mitchell, PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Israel must freeze all settlement construction, end the arbitrary detention of Palestinians and allow for the reopening of Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem, shut down by Israel in the wake of the Second Intifada.

........Israeli officials accused the PLO and Abbas of delaying the commencement of talks which were tipped to begin on Wednesday, after receiving endorsement from the Arab League last Saturday during an extraordinary meeting of Arab officials in Cairo to discuss the matter.

......The US-brokered talks, which have been given a four-month deadline, were derailed in March ... when Israel announced further settlement construction in East Jerusalem on the eve of the PLO's endorsement of talks   Full story