Afghanistan: Taliban to Open Qatar Office in Step Toward Peace Talks

Taliban to Open Qatar Office in Step Toward Peace Talks - NYTimes.com: "The step was a reversal of the Taliban’s longstanding public denials that it was involved or even willing to consider talks related to its insurgency, and it had the potential to revive a reconciliation effort that stalled in September, with the assassination of the head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council. It was unclear, however, whether the Taliban was interested in working toward a comprehensive peace settlement or mainly in ensuring that NATO ends its operations in Afghanistan as scheduled in 2014, which would remove a major obstacle to the Taliban’s return to power in all or part of the country."

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West Bank: “The Jordanian efforts are the last-minute efforts to salvage the situation,” Erekat warned

Palestinians hope to salvage peace efforts at meeting with Israelis - The Washington Post: "The chief Palestinian peace negotiator said Monday his first meeting with Israelis in more than a year will be a last-ditch effort to salvage the peace process and warned that the Palestinians would explore alternatives if no progress is made. Saeb Erekat said he was holding out hope for Tuesday’s meeting in Jordan, but acknowledged his expectations were low as he reiterated his long-standing demand for an Israeli freeze on settlement construction. Without a breakthrough, he warned, the Palestinians will be forced to examine alternatives to peace talks at the end of the month. Those could include again trying for recognition at the U.N."

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Jordan: Israeli, Palestinian officials to meet in Jordan - CNN.com

Israeli, Palestinian officials to meet in Jordan - CNN.com: "Yoaz Hendel, chief media adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thanked Jordanian officials in a statement Sunday "for their efforts to bring the two sides together under the outline of international quartet."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat also expressed his appreciation to Jordan's King Abdullah for his role in the breakthrough.
"This invitation is part of ongoing Jordanian efforts to compel Israel to comply with its international legal obligations and those under the Quartet Road Map, specifically its obligation to freeze all settlement construction in all the occupied Palestinian territory, including occupied East Jerusalem," Erakat said in a statement. Netanyahu's special envoy, attorney Yitzhak Molcho, and Erakat will meet with representatives of the Middle East Quartet -- made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia."

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Vatican: Educate young for peace, pope says at New Year Mass | Reuters

Educate young for peace, pope says at New Year Mass | Reuters: "Educating the young "in knowledge of the truth, in fundamental values and virtues, is to look to the future with hope," he said in his homily. Young people needed all-round education, and this required a social commitment to justice and peace, the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Roman Catholics said. They must use advances in communications technology to promote peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, dialogue and understanding. "Young people ... are open to these attitudes but the social reality in which they grow up can lead them to think and act in the opposite way, even to be intolerant and violent," he said."

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