PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that he would weigh up holding indirect talks with Israel during an Arab meeting in Cairo opening on Wednesday. Abbas, who has rebuffed US pressure to resume direct talks with Israel in the absence of a settlement freeze in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said his government had lengthy talks with the United States about the indirect talks. "This will be a matter of discussion at the meeting of the Arab ministerial follow- up committee," he told reporters on Tuesday after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Abbas, who was in Cairo ahead of the gathering of foreign ministers from 13 Arab countries today, said the discussions would encompass the details of the proposed talks. US-led efforts to restart negotiations between Abbas' Palestinian Authority and Israel, suspended at the start of the Gaza war last winter, have failed so far, with Abbas insisting on a complete halt to settlement construction. He has rejected a temporary Israeli moratorium on most of the building as insufficient. Palestinians want the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, from which Israeli withdrew in 2005, for its state, with annexed East Jerusalem as its capital. Abbas said that constant consultations with Egypt were a top priority, stressing that for him, the "Egyptian point of view is of great significance”. "We appreciate the Egyptian point of view, especially during this crucial time, which sees stagnancy in peace and reconciliation," Abbas said.
