Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations are expected to resume later this week, following the announcement by US Secretary of State John Kerry last Friday in the Jordanian capital Amman: “The representatives of two proud people today have decided that the difficult road ahead is worth traveling,” Kerry said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would have “tough choices” to make as talks proceed, he added.
The terms of the resumption of talks were not made clear immediately, and the Palestinians on Monday said they were only be “preliminary” and not touch on final-status questions such as borders. A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority (PA) reiterated that in order for the PA to enter final-status talks, Israel must agree to freeze settlement expansion and negotiate on the basis of it’s the pre-1967 borders.
As a goodwill gesture leading up to negotiations, Israel will reportedly release 82 Palestinian prisoners, all of whom began serving their terms before Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the 1993 Oslo Accords. Should talks get off the ground, the 'New York Times' reported that the former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk would be the US envoy. Indyk currently serves as foreign policy director at the Brookings Institution.
