Ramallah – Ma’an – In a controversial vote, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee gave its support on Sunday to proposed indirect peace negotiations with Israel.

“In light of the Arab stance and on the basis on its national responsibility, the Palestinian leadership decided to give the US proposal a chance, holding indirect talks between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, which will initially focus on the issues of borders and security,” senior PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo told reporters following the four-hour meeting.

The Arab League gave its blessing to the negotiations on Wednesday, paving the way for the renewal of talks that were halted when Israel launched a war in the Gaza Strip in December 2008.

US President Barack Obama’s administration has been pressuring Israel and the PLO to return to negotiations since the end of the war, which left some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead. President Mahmoud Abbas declared direct negotiations impossible as long as Israel expands West Bank settlements.

Abed Rabbo also said that the two sides have agreed to the 1967 borders as a basis of negotiations.

It is not clear, however, whether the negotiations would take into account understandings Abbas reached with Israel in the last round of formal talks with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Split decision

Abed Rabbo, who serves as the PLO's Executive Committee Secretary noted that the committee was not unanimous in its decision.

“This decision of the Palestinian leadership was taken with the objection or disagreement of a number factions and members of the Executive Committee,” he said, without divulging names.

The communist Palestinian People’s Party said in a statement following the meeting that it had voted against a return to negotiations. The group said the PLO was “embarrassed” by Abbas’ decision to ask the Arab League to support a return to negotiations.

“The decision to resume talks should be only up to the organizations of the PLO with all of our appreciation and respect for the support of the Arabs to the Palestinians and their cause,” the statement said.

While the PLO was expected to vote in favor of the proposal, several PLO officials and members of Abbas’ Fatah party recently voiced opposition to renewed talks.

Crossroads

Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeina stressed that the return to talks was conditional and temporary. He said: "We don’t want guarantees … what is needed is clear decisions… Does Israel want peace? Is US administration able to continue with the peace process in spite of Israel’s stubbornness?"

"The region will be at a crossroads for the next four months while we evaluate the peace process, whether it is moving forward or returning to a condition of paralysis," he added.

He added that “the area will be in front of a junction in four months from now while evaluating the peace process it’s either progressing or return to the condition of freezing and paralysis.”

US envoy George Mitchell, who is expected to mediate in the talks, began meeting with Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, on Saturday evening and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Under a US proposal, Mitchell is to shuttle between the two sides. US Vice President Joe Biden is to arrive in Israel later on Sunday.

At the start of his four-hour meeting with Mitchell in West Jerusalem, Netanyahu told reporters, "If there is a desire to get to direct talks through a corridor then I think the sooner the better." Israeli officials said the two had a "good conversation" but did not divulge other details.

In accordance with the Arab League's decision, the negotiators will have just four months to achieve progress, at which time Arab states say they will refer the issue to the UN Security Council.

Speaking to a rally in Ramallah earlier on Sunday, Abbas sounded a patriotic note, saying the PLO would not accept a peace deal without Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. He also said Israel's continued seizure of Palestinian land threatened renewed violence.

“Israel’s ongoing settlement and expansion policy at the expense of inalienable Palestinian rights will have disastrous consequences,” he said.

“These violations promise a dark future, in light of the absence of peace and stability, which we all look forward to achieving for the best of the region’s peoples.”

“No Palestinian state can be established without Jerusalem, neither can a peace agreement be reached without Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Palestine.”