JERUSALEM - Israel and the Palestinians may resume indirect peace deliberations soon, with a US mediator shuttling between negotiating teams, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Thursday. Echoing comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day earlier, cabinet minister Gilad Erdan said: "Sometimes it takes more than two to tango. And sometimes you need a third party to bring the positions closer." Asked on Israel Radio if the resumption of negotiations, stalled for more than a year, would be in the format of proximity talks through US mediation, Erdan said: "Yes, indeed." Palestinian officials did not confirm Erdan's remarks, but pointed out that US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has made more than a dozen visits to the region to try to revive peace negotiations leading to the creation of a Palestinian state. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he would return to the negotiating table only after Israel stopped settlement building in the occupied West Bank. He termed insufficient a limited construction freeze announced by Netanyahu in November. But Abbas told Britain's Guardian newspaper earlier this week that proximity talks could be a way to restart the negotiating process. Such shuttle diplomacy could allow Abbas to pursue a peace deal without dropping his settlement freeze demand. Netanyahu said in a speech on Wednesday he had reason to hope the negotiations could resume within weeks and reiterated Israel was ready to renew without preconditions the talks that have not convened since a Gaza war erupted in December 2008.
