Barak meets Abbas in Amman on eve of peace talks in US
By JPOST.COM STAFF 08/31/2010 09:51
www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=186552

Defense minister, PA president discuss easing security conditions in West
Bank as confidence building measure one day before PM set to depart for
Washington to relaunch negotiations.

On the eve of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's departure for Washington
to relaunch peace negotiations with the Palestinians, Defense Minister Ehud
Barak secretly met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in
Amman on Monday night after having met Jordanian King Abdullah at his palace
on Sunday.

After his meeting with King Abdullah, Barak returned to Israel to update the
prime minister on their conversation before returning to Amman to meet
Abbas.

Barak and Abbas discussed the further easing of security conditions for
Palestinians in the West Bank as a confidence building measure as peace
talks are renewed.

In his Sunday meeting with Abdullah, Barak said that Jordan holds a central
position in the search for regional peace and in aiding Israel and the
Palestinians to reach an agreement. The defense minister added that peace is
a strategic goal for Israel and that Israel expects the Palestinians will
arrive in Washington with an open heart to negotiations.

King Abdullah emphasized that the engagement in negotiations must be serious
and honest in order to give as quick a resolution as possible to all the
central issues which separate the parties. Abdullah added that regional
peace will start with the achievement of a solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "This would give a real guarantee to regional
security and stability," said Abdullah. "Achieving peace in the Middle East
is a regional and international strategic interest. Everyone should
therefore exert their influence and make every effort in order to make
negotiations succeed as fast as possible."

Netanyahu was scheduled to leave on Tuesday morning for the talks. He will
meet with US President Barack Obama on Wednesday, before attending a dinner
hosted by Obama with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, Jordanian King Abdullah and Quartet envoy Tony Blair. He is
expected to hold separate talks with each of the other leaders as well.

On Thursday morning, Netanyahu and Abbas will launch the talks in the
presence of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department.

This ceremony will be followed by the first working meeting between
Netanyahu and Abbas, and their respective teams.