The first meeting in over a year between Israeli and Palestinian Authority negotiators began Tuesday evening in Jordan, Israel Radio reported. The first stage of the meeting will involve Quartet representatives, a Jordanian representative and the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.
Later Tuesday evening, Israeli negotiator Yitzhak Molcho and PA negotiator Saeb Erekat were to hold another meeting with only the Jordanian representative present.While the Jordanian initiative was praised for bringing the two sides together for the first time in over a year, both Israelis and Palestinians played down expectations for the talks, which were not classified as negotiations. PA President Mahmoud Abbas warned that if the talks failed, the Palestinians were ready to take "difficult" measures, without specifying what they were.
