Israel: Fate of talks to be clear in days

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday it would be clear within "days" whether the crisis-hit peace talks would be extended beyond an April 29 deadline, local media reported. His remarks, which were reported by several Israeli news websites, come as US officials work around the clock to prevent a collapse of the negotiations over a dispute about Palestinian prisoners. "It could be a matter of just days," Netanyahu reportedly told ministers from his rightwing Likud party who met just before the weekly cabinet meeting. "Either the matter will be resolved or it will blow up. And in any case, there won't be any deal without Israel knowing clearly what it will get in exchange," he said. "And if there is a deal, it will be put to the cabinet for approval." With the talks teetering on the brink of collapse, Washington has been fighting an uphill battle to coax the two sides into accepting a framework proposal which would extend the negotiations beyond April to the end of the year. But the matter has become tied up with the fate of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners whom Israel was to have freed this weekend under terms of an agreement which brought about a resumption of talks. Israel on Friday informed the Palestinians via a US mediator that it would not release the fourth and final batch of prisoners, with the US State Department confirming it was working "intensively" to resolve the dispute.   The Palestinians say they will not even consider extending the talks without the prisoners being freed, but Israel has refused to release them without a Palestinian commitment to continue the talks, prompting a fresh crisis of confidence between the parties. - 'Ball in Israel's court' - "The ball is now in Israel’s court," Palestinian prisoners minister Issa Qaraqaa told Voice of Palestine radio on Sunday. The Palestinian leadership was expecting an answer from the Israeli government within 24 hours, he said. "I believe president (Mahmud) Abbas has given them until tomorrow (Monday) to respond –- if they don’t, then the Palestinians will be taking some very important decisions about the course of the negotiations," he warned. Aside from the release of the 26 veteran detainees, Abbas reportedly wants an Israeli commitment to free even more prisoners as one of his conditions for agreeing to extend the talks. Late on Saturday, an official in Ramallah told AFP that Netanyahu had expressed willingness to free another 400 detainees and reduce its military presence in the West Bank in exchange for Palestinian agreement to extend the talks. Israeli officials refused to comment. Under a deal that relaunched peace talks last July, Israel agreed to release 104 prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo peace accords in exchange for the Palestinians freezing all efforts to seek further international recognition. So far, Israel has freed 78 of them in three batches, and the last group  -- which includes 14 Arab Israelis jailed for nationalist attacks -- was to have been released on March 29. "Israel is now trying to make us pay the price for this fourth group and to exercise as much blackmail as possible," former chief negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh told the same radio station, vowing that the Palestinians would not "kowtow to such extortion". "However, things are still up in the air and we will see what the next few days bring," he said, confirming the Palestinians were indeed seeking the release of further prisoners beyond the 104. Source: AFP