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Israel's
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) speaks during a joint
news conference
with Shaul Mofaz (not seen), head of the Kadima party
which join Netanyahu's
rightist coalition, at parliament in Jerusalem
May 8, 2012. (Credit:
Reuters/Ammar Awad)
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(Reuters) -
Israel and the Palestinian Authority issued a rare joint statement on Saturday,
saying they were committed to peace after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
dispatched an envoy to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The envoy
carried a letter from Netanyahu replying to one he received last month from
Abbas, in which the Palestinian leader stated his grievances over the collapse
of peace talks in 2010 and laid out his parameters for a resumption of
negotiations.
Details of
Netanyahu's letter were not released, but Israeli officials said last week that
they did not expect him to accept a key Palestinian demand to halt all
settlement building in the occupied territories before reopening any talks.
Netanyahu's
office issued a joint statement with the Palestinians after envoy Isaac Molcho
met Abbas in Ramallah -- the Palestinian Authority's administrative capital.
"Israel
and the Palestinian Authority are committed to achieving peace and the sides
hope that the exchange of letters between President Abbas and Prime Minister
Netanyahu will further this goal," the statement said.
Abbas's
letter had demanded a halt to Israeli settlement construction on West Bank land
captured in the 1967 Middle East war and accused Israel of showing a lack of
commitment to the decades-old peace process, officials said.
Netanyahu
has repeatedly called on Abbas to return to talks without any pre-conditions
and promised that Israel was ready to make concessions, if the Palestinians
would also compromise.
FLICKER OF HOPE
Few
diplomats expect any breakthrough ahead of U.S. presidential elections in
November, however the surprise formation of a national unity government in
Israel last week has provided a slight flicker of hope.
Netanyahu
stunned the political establishment on May 8 by hooking up with the main
opposition group, the centrist Kadima party, to form one of the biggest
coalitions in Israeli history.
The head of
Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, has long blamed Netanyahu for the failure of the peace
talks and told reporters last week that entering new negotiations "was an
iron condition for forming the unity government".
The
Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee is set to convene on
Sunday to review Netanyahu's letter.
"Tomorrow
(Sunday) the PLO executive committee will meet to discuss what Netanyahu said
in his letter and what steps we are going to take," the PLO's Wasel Abu
Yusef told Reuters.
Before
Abbas met Molcho, he received a call from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton to discuss regional issues, Abbas's office said. Clinton also spoke to
Netanyahu mid-week to urge a resumption in negotiations.
U.S.-sponsored
peace talks froze in 2010 after Netanyahu rejected Palestinian demands that he
extend a partial settlement construction freeze he had introduced at
Washington's behest.
About
500,000 Israeli settlers and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and
East Jerusalem -- territory the Palestinians want for an independent state.
The
settlements are considered illegal by the International Court of Justice, the
highest U.N. legal body for disputes. Israel cites historical and Biblical
links to the land and says the status of settlements should only be decided in
peace talks.
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