INDIRECT Palestinian-Israeli talks should start with the main issues, including the borders, as a step to move forward in negotiations, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said. "The indirect talks should focus on substantial issues not on procedural frameworks that could waste the time and efforts in vain," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki quoted Abul Gheit yesterday as telling former British prime minister Tony Blair, the special envoy of the international Quartet. He added that the talks should coincide with Israel easing the procedures it applies against Palestinians. "It would be very regrettable to skip this chance," Zaki told reporters. Due to the fact that the Palestinians have refused to engage in direct talks without a full freeze on settlements, Arab foreign ministers approved indirect talks between them with a deadline of four months. Emad Gad of the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies said neither Israelis nor Palestinians were optimistic about the prospects of such indirect talks, noting that the two sides had been talking directly, but fruitlessly for nearly 20 years. "They will clearly fail as has happened before,” Gad told the Egyptian Mail by phone. He added that this time the Arabs and Palestinians would lose confidence in the Obama administration's ability to help or find a way out of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Adding salt to the wounds yesterday, Israel authorised the construction of 112 new apartments in the West Bank despite a pledge to slowdown settlement building …quot; enraging the Palestinians just a day after they had reluctantly agreed to resume peace talks. Jewish construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is a particularly sore point with the Palestinians because it challenges their claims to land they want for a future state. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of trying to undermine the talks even before they had begun. "If the Israeli government wants to sabotage Mitchell's efforts by taking such steps, let's talk to Mitchell about maybe not doing this [the indirect talks] if the price is so high," Erekat said. Word of the new construction came amid a flurry of activity by the US to try to salvage peacemaking. US Vice-President Joseph Biden held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the highest-level visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by an Obama administration official. Biden said it was crucial both sides enter negotiations with a positive attitude. "We have got to ensure now that we will give the talks every chance of succeeding. The key is holding talks with goodwill, so that both sides come to the table with serious intentions," he said in an interview with the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot. Ascheduled stop in Egypt by Biden was postponed because President Hosni Mubarak is out of the country recovering from surgery. Washington's special envoy to the MidEast, George Mitchell, was also in the area, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
