BICOM

Tzipi Livni and Isaac Molcho, Israel’s lead negotiators in peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) travelled to Washington yesterday for talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, to lay the foundations for a meeting between Kerry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.

Kerry brokered the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the PA in July and has been a regular visitor to the region since then. Last month Kerry presented a framework plan for final status talks to both Israeli and Palestinian leaders and London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat suggested over the weekend that Kerry will present a fuller memorandum of understanding towards the end of the month.

In the meantime, Livni and Netanyahu’s personal envoy Molcho travelled to Washington yesterday for talks with Kerry, which according to Haaretz will also be attended by US mediator Martin Indyk and Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer. Apparently, the meeting will aim to narrow significant gaps between the Israeli and the Palestinian positions regarding Kerry’s framework. It will also lay the groundwork for a meeting later this week between Kerry and Prime Minister Netanyahu in Switzerland.

Kerry will be in Geneva this week primarily for Syrian peace talks. Meanwhile, Netanyahu will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, where according to Yediot Ahronot, a forum of Israeli and Palestinian business leaders called “Breaking the Impasse” will discuss the economic imperative of peace. The Jerusalem Post reports that next week Palestinian negotiators are expected to travel to Washington to meet with Kerry. Haaretz says that Kerry will then decide if the positions of the two sides can be reconciled and whether he should return to the region.

Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed last night that they had begun the process of returning the remains of 36 Palestinian terrorists killed during the last 10 years, to the PA for burial following a ruling by Israel’s High Court in favour of a petition by the families of the terrorists.