Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said that peace talks with Israel will start “very soon”. Abbas said after the Eid Al-Fitr prayer at presidential compound of Al-Muqata'a that East Jerusalem would be the capital of the future Palestinian state. The Palestinian president expressed hope that the next Eid Al-Fitr feast would be celebrated “under an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.” Abbas said that the first group of Palestinian prisoners who have been imprisoned in Israel before the Oslo Accords would be released “very soon.” The president's remarks come a day after the Israeli Civil Administration authorized construction of 878 housing units in West Bank. The Israeli daily Haaretz said that the Civil Administration, a military department responsible for coordinating civil issues between Israeli government and the Palestinians approved the units for Jewish settlements in the Binyamin region to the east of Ramallah, the Jordan Valley, and Gush Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem. According o the report, construction was approved for 112 new homes in the Shilo, 559 units in Talmon, 38 in Kochav Yaakov and 60 in Alon Shvut, 78 in Kibbutz Gilgal and 31 in Almog. The Palestinian leadership decided to suspend the direct peace talks with Israel in October 2010, after the latter insisted on keeping building settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
