Middle East leaders ‘tackle core issues’ in Egypt talks

“We will not freeze the lives of the residents,” he said.

However, the chief Palestinian negotiator said there could be no “half solutions” by Israel.

“If it chooses any kind of settlement building, this means that it has destroyed the whole peace process and it would be fully responsible for that,” Saeb Erekat told the Associated Press.

Another problem facing negotiators is that only one part of the Palestinian territories is represented because the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, opposes the talks.

On Tuesday, a leading Hamas figure, Mahmoud Zahar, told the BBC the movement would not attempt to stop the talks because they would “reach an end, as previous ones” by themselves.

But he said no Palestinian, including those involved in the talks, believed they would produce a genuine result.

“We have to advise the Palestinian side that this process is just a process, just meeting, just talking, just speaking without achieving real substantive issues related to the Palestinian rights,” he said.

The series of two- and three-way meetings in Sharm-el-Sheikh comes ahead of another trilateral meeting scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on Wednesday.