JERUSALEM: The first talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators for almost three years are scheduled to begin in Washington next Tuesday, according to an Israeli minister. The statement was not immediately confirmed by officials from either side.

Silvan Shalom, speaking after meeting the Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat in the West Bank city of Jericho, told reporters: “We hope that the talks between Israel and the Palestinians in Washington will begin next week, hopefully on Tuesday. We want and are interested in moving forward in the negotiations.”

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, announced a breakthrough in moves towards preliminary talks six days ago, saying that if further discussions went “as expected” he expected negotiators to meet “within a week or so”.

A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said he was aware of Shalom's statement “but at the moment I can't confirm this”. As of Wednesday night, he added, there was no firm date for a meeting.

A Palestinian official said their side was making preparations to travel to Washington on Sunday or Monday, but still needed firm assurances on the parameters for talks and a commitment by Israel to release scores of Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestinians want a letter from Kerry stating that the US is committed to the pre-1967 border as the basis for negotiations on the territorial boundaries of an Israeli and Palestinian state, with agreed compensatory land swaps for any deviations.“We are expecting to receive a letter from the US by the end of the week. I believe it will come,” said the official. “The leadership has made it clear that without a letter we will not go.”

The talks will initially focus on the framework and timescale of proper negotiations. The justice minister, Tzipi Livni, will represent the Israelis—the Palestinians will field Erekat. Both are veterans of previous—and failed—efforts to reach an agreement to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Even preliminary talks will be seen as a major triumph for Kerry, who has devoted more than four months of intensive diplomacy to reviving the moribund process amid repeated warnings that time is running out for a two-state deal. However, Kerry acknowledged the potential pitfalls, saying last Friday that “the challenges require some very tough choices in the days ahead”.

Israel has agreed to free more than 80 long-term Palestinian prisoners in four stages once talks begin. The release of men who have been in jail for more than 20 years is of prime importance to Palestinians, but is divisive among Israelis, many of whom oppose freedom for those responsible for the deaths of citizens in suicide bombings and gun attacks.

Netanyahu is believed to be seeking the backing of his cabinet or security cabinet in a vote which could take place this Sunday.

Another issue yet to be ironed out is the timeframe for talks. The Palestinians, who fear Israeli foot-dragging, want a limit of six months, whereas the Israelis are thought to be pressing for talks to last up to a year. Both sides have pledged to put any eventual outcome of negotiations to a referendum.

Meanwhile, a former US general has warned that the absence of a peace deal and continued Israeli colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem could lead to an apartheid state. James Mattis, head of the US Central Command until his retirement two months ago, said in an interview that the present situation was “unsustainable”.

“We've got to get [to a two-state solution], and the chances for it are starting to ebb because the settlements, and where they're at, are going to make it impossible to maintain the two-state option,” he told CNN.

He warned that, without a separation of the populations, “either it ceases to be a Jewish state or you say the Arabs don't get to vote—apartheid. That didn't work too well the last time I saw that practised in a country. So we've got to work on this with a sense of urgency.”

The US, he added, “paid a military security price every day ... because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel”.

By arrangement with the Guardian