Kerry flies to Jordan in effort to salvage Mideast peace talks

[Jefferson23]

By Anne Gearan and William Booth, Updated: Wednesday, March 26, 1:00 PM E-mail the writers

AMMAN, Jordan — Facing the possible collapse of his signature Middle East peace effort, Secretary of State John F. Kerry interrupted a European diplomatic trip to meet face to face Wednesday with a Palestinian leader who has threatened to walk out of the negotiations.

Kerry was meeting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital, where the Palestinian leader has a home. Kerry flew from Rome early Wednesday and spoke en route to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At issue is the scheduled release this weekend of a final group of Palestinian prisoners long held by Israel and how to salvage eight months of talks if that promised release is delayed or canceled.

Abbas is under heavy domestic political pressure to walk away from the U.S.-backed peace effort if Israel does not complete the last release of a group of 26 Palestinians held prisoner by March 29 as agreed at the outset of talks last summer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/kerry-flies-to-jordan-in-effort-to-salvage-mideast-peace-talks/2014/03/26/3d836a04-b4fa-11e3-bab2-b9602293021d_story.html

[Jefferson23]

1. Israel delays prisoner release due for Saturday night

Israel will not release a fourth batch of 26 Palestinian security prisoners Saturday night as stipulated under the framework deal that led to the renewal of negotiations last July.

The five-minister committee chaired by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that is empowered to choose which convicted terrorists will be released would need to have met on Wednesday to make a Saturday-night release possible.
The names must be made public 48 hours – not including Shabbat – prior to the prisoners going free in order to allow appeals to the High Court of Justice against the move.

No date for convening the committee was publicized.

The Prime Minister’s Office remained silent about whether Netanyahu intended to go ahead with the release. One official cited Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s comment last week that there was never an “automatic commitment to release prisoners unrelated to making progress in negotiations,” and said that comment remained relevant.

“Things are fluid,” one official said, adding that this fluidity stemmed from Israel’s waiting to see if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – who met with US Secretary of State John Kerry for four hours in Jordan Wednesday night – would agree to continue the negotiations.

Netanyahu, however, could gain some political space if he decides to carry out the release, with the Likud's court postponing a key party conference originally scheduled for Monday night, until the end of May. This is significant for Netanyahu, because he did not want to go into the conference – where Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon is challenging his authority – against the backdrop of the prisoner release.

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Israel-delays-prisoner-release-due-for-tomorrow-night-346770