JERUSALEM: Israeli officials on Monday rejected any "preconditions" ahead of an expected international invitation to direct peace talks with the Palestinians that would call for a complete settlement freeze.
Their remarks came as Washington appeared to be closing in on the relaunch of direct negotiations after months of shuttle diplomacy that have thus far failed to convince the Palestinians to enter face-to-face talks.
"Israel is ready to start direct negotiations immediately, but without any preconditions," an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"The Palestinians, who have lost valuable time by refusing to revive these direct contacts, will present all the topics they want to discuss at the negotiating table," he added.
The diplomatic Quartet — comprised of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — was expected to issue a statement in the coming days inviting both sides to relaunch direct negotiations last suspended after the outbreak of the Gaza war in December 2008.
The Palestinians have said it will be modeled on a Quartet statement issued in Moscow in March that called on Israel to halt settlement construction and for the direct talks to lead to a final peace deal in two years.
Israeli media reported that a forum of seven top cabinet members have decided to reject the Quartet statement, which may call on Israel to renew a limited 10-month West Bank settlement freeze, set to expire in September.
"The Quartet declaration should allow the Palestinians to descend the tree they have climbed by refusing negotiations, but it must not be binding on Israel," several Israeli media outlets quoted an unnamed minister as saying.
The minister was quoted as saying that Israel would reject the appeal from the Quartet but accept a parallel invitation issued by Washington that would be "more balanced."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat charged that the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not serious about peace.
"The announcement by the Israeli government rejecting the statement of the international Quartet before it is even issued shows that Israel is persisting in its rejection of a serious peace process," Erakat told AFP.
"(This) clearly proves that this government has other interests besides peace and stability in the region," he added.
Erakat also rejected Israel’s decision on Sunday to deploy 23 caravans in eight West Bank settlements to serve as classrooms, saying it was "placing additional obstacles" in the way of US efforts to revive the peace process.
Netanyahu arrived in Greece on Monday, the first Israeli prime minister to visit a country that has traditionally been pro-Arab and did not recognize Israel’s existence until 1991.
Israel has repeatedly called for direct talks with the Palestinians but has refused to completely halt settlement activity, which it considers a "precondition," but which the Palestinians say was part of previous agreements.
The presence of some 500,000 Israelis in more than 120 settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, has been one of the most contentious issues in the decades-old conflict.
The Palestinians rejected the partial freeze on settlements as insufficient because it did not include mostly-Arab east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and annexed to its capital in a move not recognized by the international community.
The Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
The United States has been struggling for the past 18 months to relaunch the peace process, viewing it as a key foreign policy goal that would help improve relations with the Muslim world.
The two sides began indirect US-brokered talks in May, after the last round of direct talks collapsed when Israel launched a devastating three-week offensive in Gaza in December 2008 in a bid to halt rocket fire from the enclave ruled by the militant Hamas movement.
Hamas, which is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state, has warned Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas against holding any negotiations with Israel, including in a weekend statement co-signed by 10 other hardline groups based in Syria.
