The key guarantee given by Washington to the Palestinians to persuade them to enter indirect talks with Israel was a halt to a controversial plan to build 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, a top official said Sunday. The Arab League Saturday said it backed indirect negotiations with Israel after the Palestinians said they received unspecified US guarantees. “We made a decision on March 2 to support the indirect talks, and then Israel made decisions we objected to. The Americans came back to us and said this will not happen,” Hisham Yusef, chief of staff for Arab League chief Amr Moussa, said. “The assurances take us back to the status quo ante before March 2.” Moussa Sunday told reporters: “Our understanding in light of discussions is that the decision to build 1,600 units has been halted.” On Saturday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters in Cairo the talks would be suspended if Israel built any homes there. In Jerusalem Sunday, however, an Israeli cabinet minister insisted the Jewish state would continue building settler homes. “We shall not build just one house in Ramat Shlomo, we shall build many houses,” hardline Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said. Israeli and Palestinian officials said Sunday they expected to start indirect peace talks within days, following the Arab League's endorsement of a US-brokered plan to end the impasse. “From the very start we have been in favor of peace talks without preconditions and the objective is to start in the coming days, at the latest next week,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told public radio. “President Abbas will meet with Mitchell Friday,” senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said. Abbas said in a newspaper interview published Sunday that with the Arab League giving its blessing and a similar endorsement expected from the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee this week, the US- sponsored talks could now go ahead. “They will begin immediately and last for four months,” Abbas told the Palestinian daily Al
