Israel scraps Palestinian prisoner release, seeks review of talks

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By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has called off a planned release of Palestinian prisoners meant to advance the U.S.-sponsored peace process and called for a review of how the troubled negotiations can make progress, an official briefed on the talks said on Thursday. The official, who declined to be identified, said Israeli negotiators had informed their Palestinian counterparts of the decision in a Wednesday night meeting held at Washington's behest in an effort to avert a collapse of the talks. The crisis surfaced at the weekend when Israel refused to release a group of Palestinian prisoners under the terms of a previous accord unless it received assurances the Palestinian leadership would continue with negotiations beyond an initial end-April deadline set by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry flew to Jerusalem on Monday and was trying to put the talks back on track.




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