中东和谈周一在华盛顿重新启动

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are set to meet Monday in Washington for preliminary talks on resuming peace negotiations that have remained stalled for nearly three years.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will host chief negotiators Tzipi Livni for Israel and Saeb Erekat for the Palestinians a dinner Monday night to begin the discussions.  The two sides will come together for more talks on Tuesday.

Kerry says he is grateful that Palestinian and Israeli leaders have shown they are willing to make the "difficult decisions" needed to get to this point.

Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overcame strong opposition in his Cabinet to approve a Palestinian prisoner release.

One-hundred four Palestinian prisoners will be freed in four stages. But Livni said it will be carried out only if the Palestinians prove to be a serious partner in the negotiations.

星期一晚上，美国国务卿克里将设宴招待以色列首席谈判代表利夫尼和巴勒斯坦首席谈判代表埃雷卡特，并开始进行讨论。双方星期二将继续举行会谈。

克里说，以色列和巴勒斯坦领导人显示愿意做出走到这一步所需要的艰难决定，他对此表示感谢。

以色列总理内塔尼亚胡星期天克服来自其内阁的强大阻力，通过了释放巴勒斯坦囚犯的决定。

104名巴勒斯坦囚犯将分4个阶段释放。但利夫尼表示，巴勒斯坦人必须证明自己是认真参与谈判，以色列才会执行有关释放巴勒斯坦囚犯的决定。