BICOM

Israel is ready to negotiate with the Palestinians immediately and earlier this month, as part of the peace talks in Jordan, gave the Palestinians a position paper containing 21 points on which there is domestic political consensus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told MKs yesterday.

The document was given to Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat by Yitzkak Molko, Netanyahu’s personal envoy to the negotiations, at exploratory talks in Amman earlier this month, Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The PM also said that he was ready to begin negotiations at any time, but that the Palestinians have refused to negotiate without preconditions. “I’m ready to get into my car at any time and go to Ramallah, even if it’s more than a small headache for my security guards, but Abu Mazen isn’t ready,” said Netanyahu, referring to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Palestinians are expected to abandon the talks after 26 January, but Netanyahu has called for negotiations until at least April. Last fall the Mideast Quartet called on Israel and the PA to submit proposals on the issues of security and borders within three months, and the deadline has been widely interpreted as 26 January.

Despite the expectancy of the Palestinians to cease talks later this month, Jordan’s King Abdullah expressed cautious optimism after three rounds of talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Amman. The Jordanian monarch, speaking to the Washington Post, said that both sides were “looking for a way out” of the difficult positions they have entrenched themselves in. “I am cautious about saying that I’m cautiously optimistic,” the Post quoted King Abdullah as saying.

“I do believe they want a way out, a way to get to negotiations,” Abdullah said. “We all know the positions in which they have entrenched themselves. However, the intent, I believe, is there — from both sides. It is little baby steps, right at the beginning,” he stated.”

King Abdullah is meeting with US President Barak Obama today, where he is expected to discuss the status of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations currently underway in Jordan.