Stumbling blocks

Of more concern to Ricci is where the negotiations are likely to come undone.

"The offers don't match. The other side is saying they need to talk about refugees and going back to the 1967 borders and we're saying we have to talk about Israel's control of Jerusalem and a demilitarized Palestinian state," said Ricci.

"It's very hard to see that they're even going to have a common list that they can talk about, publicly at least," he said.

Shurab concurred that the talks will not be clear sailing. He thought that the settlement issue will prove to be the toughest hurdle. The presence and possible expansion of existing Jewish communities in the West Bank is likely to make the talks very difficult, he said.

Much of the success of any upcoming negotiations will also depend on the level of involvement of U.S. President Barack Obama, according to Ricci.

The U.S. leader has placed intense pressure on both parties in order to get the talks up and running before November's U.S. mid- term elections. The White House believes positive noises from the Middle East can only help the Democrats, he said.

Ricci argued that the results of those elections could well determine the level of involvement of the current administration in the peace process over the next couple of years.

"The president's role in this is so very, very dominant that everybody wants to see whether he's going to be a weak or a strong president after Nov. 2. Then who knows what's going to happen?" said Ricci.