JERUSALEM -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday peace with the Palestinians would be impossible without direct negotiations and he called for a swift move from U.S.-mediated indirect talks to face-to-face contacts.
"The proximity talks must bring about direct talks soon. Peace cannot be brought about from a distance, or with a remote control," Netanyahu told his cabinet in public remarks.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) on Saturday approved indirect talks with Israel, clearing the way for the first negotiations in 18 months and giving a boost to U.S. peace diplomacy.
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell proposed the indirect format as a way to break an impasse over Jewish settlement construction on Israeli-occupied land where the Palestinians aim to establish a state alongside Israel.
The initiative was going ahead after U.S. plans for indirect talks were stymied in March, when Israel announced plans for new settler homes in and around East Jerusalem, part of the territory claimed by the Palestinians.
The Palestinian leadership has demanded a freeze on such projects.
Netanyahu said the indirect talks would begin "without preconditions", an indirect reference to his pledge not to curb construction of homes for Jews in and near East Jerusalem, restrictions that could tear apart his pro-settler government.
But no new Israeli housing projects in East Jerusalem have been approved since March, raising speculation that Netanyahu has imposed a de facto moratorium.
In his remarks to the cabinet on talks with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said no one should expect that "we will arrive at decisions and agreements on matters that are critical … without sitting together in the same room."
Mitchell planned to return home later on Sunday after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
