By Xinhua
Ramallah : Palestinian and Israeli peace negotiators will meet on Thursday with a U.S. envoy assigned to follow up both sides’ commitments to the Roadmap peace plan, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Sunday.
When General William Fraser arrives in the region, a three-way meeting, comprising the U.S., Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), will be held to discuss what had been implemented out of the U.S.-backed peace plan, Erekat said.
The Roadmap plan calls on Israel to stop settlement activities in the West Bank and military escalation and withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.
The PNA had completed administrative reforms and held parliamentary elections but so far failed to curb attacks against Israel as part of its obligations under the plan.
Last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas briefly halted the peace talks, which was revived at a U.S.-hosted conference in November, after over 120 Palestinians were killed in a deadly Israeli military operation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip in retaliation for rocket squads operating from the enclave.
But Abbas backed down under pressure from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who visited Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt last week. On Saturday, he urged the negotiations to continue.
In a bid to build atmosphere suitable for the peace talks, Egypt backed by the United States is making efforts to convince Hamas and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) organizations to stop firing home-made rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel to avoid Israeli reactions.
Two delegations from Hamas and Islamic Jihad movement will arrive in the Egyptian capital of Cairo next week to resume talks on the Palestinian-Israeli cooling-off, according to Egyptian daily Al Gomhuria.