Kerry to brief Arab FMs on Palestine-Israel talks' outcome

An Arab ministerial delegation will be meeting US secretary of state John Kerry in Rome, Italy, next Sunday to discuss outcome of four rounds of negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, an Arab League official said Tuesday. The meeting is at Kerry's request to brief the Arab ministers on results of US-brokered negotiations, assistant secretary general for Palestine and occupied Arab lands Mohammad Subeih told reporters. He said there were indications the peace talks were facing problems "and the atmospheres surrounding the negotiations by Israel are very bad, negative and dangerous." Subeih said the negotiations were held amidst "vicious" expansion of Jewish settlements in occupied Jerusalem, coupled with the Israeli army's terrorizing of Palestinian people. He urged the US to send clear messages to Israel to stop its anti-peace policies. All negotiators around the world work in normal conditions, he said, "except the Palestinian negotiator who works in difficult circumstances in the midst of absence of international public opinion and its silence regarding the Israeli crimes." The Arab League believes that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not want the two-state solution.