LEAD: Palestinians, Israel hold talks in Jordan

Jan 15, 2012, 13:06 GMT

Ramallah/Amman - Israeli and Palestinian envoys met in Amman overnight, for the third time since Jordan began mediating a series of direct talks early this month.

They agreed to meet again on January 25, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported, a day before the Palestinians were expected to decide whether to stop or continue the discussions.

The Palestinians see January 26 as a deadline, after which they could declare the talks a failure and renew their diplomatic activity at the United Nations.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy, Yitzhak Molcho, held a 'frank,' 'serious' and 'substantive' discussion late Saturday on security and borders, Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Kayed was quoted as saying by the official Petra news agency.

'But the rift persisted on issues tackled,' he said.

The Palestinian side was persuaded to enter into the Jordanian-led talks, despite the absence of an Israeli settlement freeze - until then a Palestinian precondition for direct negotiations.

'It is up to Israel to decide if negotiations will happen or not. It's very easy. They just have to fulfil their international obligations ... including a full settlement freeze. The ball is on their side, not ours,' Xavier Abu Eid, a senior advisor to Erekat, told dpa Sunday.

Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev, would not comment on the talks but refered to an interview with The Weekend Australian, published Saturday, in which the Israeli premier accused the Palestinians of stalling negotiations by setting preconditions.

'There's a simple way to prove it,' Netanyahu was quoted as saying. 'I'm willing to get in a car and travel the eight minutes, 10 minutes, to Ramallah and sit down to negotiations immediately with (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas. He is not willing to sit down with me.'

The most important result that could arise from the talks in Jordan would be a commitment to continuous negotiations, he told the paper.

Netanyahu's largest coalition partner, the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, has ruled out any new settlement freeze.

Abbas told senior members of his Fatah party Saturday, 'If we agree on a common ground, then we go to negotiations; but if the ground is not there, then what are we supposed to negotiate about? So far, there is no agreement on the ground.'

Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, was quoted in the semi-official daily al-Ayyam as saying that 'January 26 remains a crossroad; we either make progress in these exploratory meetings or we will be forced to take decisions.'

The deadline is based on a late September plan by the quartet of Middle East mediators - the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations - which called on the sides to start talks focusing first on two negotiating issues: Borders and security. The parties were asked to submit serious proposals on these within three months.