Israel on Sunday approved the release of
104 Arab prisoners in a a move intended to facilitate the restart of peace
talks with the Palestinians and end nearly three years of diplomatic
standstill.
Thirteen ministers in Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet authorized the release, seven voted against and
two abstained, a government official said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had demanded the release of these prisoners jailed from before a 1993 interim peace accord took effect. Israel has jailed thousands more Palestinians since that time, citing security offenses.
Netanyahu said Israel must seize what he saw as the opportunity presented by "monumental changes" in the Arab world and give Israel a boost in what he called a "complex global reality" to try to resolve decades of conflict with the Palestinians.
He said the negotiations, which a senior Palestinian official has said may convene in Washington on Tuesday, "will last at least nine months with the aim of examining whether it is possible in this period to achieve an agreement with the Palestinians."
"I did agree to release 104 Palestinians in defined groups after the start of negotiations, and in accordance with the circumstances of its progress," he said, adding that he had rejected other Palestinian demands for a settlement freeze.
"With all the importance I attach to the diplomatic process I wasn't ready to accept the Palestinians' demands for (military) withdrawals and (settlement) freezes as preconditions for entering in negotiations," the Israeli leader wrote.
The U.S.-brokered talks broke down three years ago in a dispute over settlement construction Palestinians say denies them the land needed for a state they seek to establish in territory Israel captured in a 1967 war.
Officials said Netanyahu's plan calls for freeing inmates in at least four stages stretched over a nine-month period, with the first group being released over the next few weeks. Netanyahu said prisoners would be freed only after talks began.
The latest diplomatic push follows months of intense shuttle diplomacy by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who said a week ago the groundwork had been laid for a breakthrough, while setting no specific date for talks to reconvene.
The two sides still differ widely over core elements of a deal to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Abbas had pressed for explicit guarantees that Israel would negotiate a withdrawal based on borders from before the 1967 conflict. Israel has resisted, insisting it would keep several settlement blocs and East Jerusalem, a city it annexed as part of its capital in a move never recognized internationally.
REUTERS/AP