U.S. will pressure on Arabs, PNA

The Palestinians were astonished when President Obama spoke on the phone with Abbas and told him he preferred to go for direct talks.

According to senior sources quoted by al-Ayyam Daily, the Palestinians may accept moving to the direct talks in September when the four-month proximity talks are over.

However, Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestine Liberation Organization official, said "we don't know that the proximity talks have stopped. Mitchell is coming next week, and the context and the core of the talks are more important to us than the way they are being held."

Habib believed that if the U.S. fails to persuade Abbas to move to the direct negotiations, "the U.S. will go to the Arab group, instead of the Palestinian (National) Authority," referring to Wednesday's meeting between Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who will meet with Abbas afterwards.

"If the Palestinians move from proximity talks to direct talks, I believe that the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will be similar to the type of negotiations between the two sides before it stopped in December 2008," said Habib.

U.S. does what Israel wants

Since the talks between Israel and the Palestinians stopped in December 2008 after Israel approved a series of plans to construct in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, the Palestinians have been trying to attract the attention of the U.S. and urging it to pressure on Israel.

However, Talal Oukal, a Gaza-based political analyst, said that the U.S. positions have always served Israel's interests, adding "the U.S. has always adopted Israel's political stances against the Arabs and the Palestinians, and always done what Israel wants."

"Therefore, pushing the Palestinians towards accepting the direct negotiations with Israel without achieving any progress in the proximity talks means that the Palestinians are reversing back to the first quarter of the negotiations. Exactly the quarter that Israel wants," Oukal told Xinhua.

The PNA, now in a weak position, is trying its best through the Arab friends of the U.S. to exert more pressure on Israel to do something that shows a progress has been achieved, mainly extending the period of freezing settlement, or carrying out goodwill gestures such as releasing prisoners.

"I would advise the Palestinian National Authority not to accept to go for direct talks as long as the proximity talks have achieved nothing," said Oukal, adding "even if the direct talks with Israel are resumed, I don't think it will achieve a breakthrough, but only a waste of more time."