JERUSALEM -- Israeli prime minister's adviser denied on Thursday reports which said Israel is willing to adopt the Arab peace initiative amid efforts to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Reports earlier in the day said, amid a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to the region, that according to an Israeli official, Israel agreed to base the talks on a Palestinian country situated in the 1967 borders (on lands Israel annexed during the 1967 Mideast War) as well as lands swaps.
However, right after the news broke out, the premier's adviser Mark Regev said it was not true.
Kerry is on his sixth visit to the region since coming to office in March. He said Wednesday the two parties have narrowed the gaps between them and, according to publications from Amman, he might announce the resumption of the peace talks on Friday.
In the meantime, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is set to meet with Palestinian officials Thursday afternoon and evening to discuss Kerry's outline for renewing the peace talks, which came to a halt in 2010 over Israel's construction in the West Bank settlements.
According to a report on the Walla! News website, the Americans suggested they will supply the diplomatic wording and spare Israeli and Palestinian officials pressures from their local political allies.
The Palestinians insist that Israel should release 103 Palestinian prisoners locked up in Israeli prisons, freeze the construction in the settlements, and acknowledge that the basis for the negotiations is the 1967 borderlines.
