Palestinian leaders Friday gave their backing for indirect peace talks with Israel, clearing the way for the Obama administration's first sustained on-the-ground Mideast peace effort. US Mideast envoy George Mitchell will now shuttle between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders for up to four months to try to narrow the vast gaps on the terms of Palestinian statehood. Saturday's decision by the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee and the Fatah Central Committee was widely expected since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed interested in the indirect negotiations and has received Arab League support. PLO general secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo told reporters the Palestinians decided to engage Israel, even if indirectly, because they received US guarantees “regarding settlement activities and the necessity of stopping them.” Abbas has said he will not hold direct talks until Israel stops all settlement construction on war-won lands the Palestinians seek for their state. Israel has only agreed to a partial slowdown in the West Bank, but not in east Jerusalem, the sector of the city Palestinians claim as a future capital. The indirect talks were devised as a compromise, but the arrangement was thrown into doubt in March when Israel announced new plans to build 1,600 homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, enraging the Palestinians and prompting them to back out of negotiations just as they were to start. Abed Rabbo said the US also assured the Palestinians that all core issues would be raised in indirect talks.
