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Palestinians: Direct talks only if Israel settlements end
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 07 - 07 - 2010


Palestinians responded coolly
today to calls by US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move from indirect to direct peace
negotiations, dpa reported.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat blamed Netanyahu for
blocking the way to direct negotiations, because of his refusal to
meet Palestinian demands for a full freeze on Israeli construction in
both the occupied West Bank and Al-Quds.
The Palestinian Authority has decried as insufficient a partial
10-month freeze on construction in Israeli West Bank settlements -
but not East Jerusalem - which Netanyahu declared last November.
Erekat, asked if he expected more US pressure on the Palestinians
in the wake of Tuesday's meeting between Obama and Netanyahu, said:
"The whole world and the US administration knows that the one who is
blocking the door to direct negotiations is Netanyahu.
"We are sincerely interested in starting direct negotiations, but
Netanyahu keeps closing the door in front of us," Erekat told Voice
of Palestine Radio. "Netanyahu must decide if he wants peace or
settlements. He cannot have both."
He also reiterated that the Palestinians first want to see
progress in indirect talks on the issues of borders and security, and
for direct negotiations to resume from where they ended in December
2008, during an election campaign in Israel that saw the nationalist
Netanyahu return to power.
"The world knows that starting direct talks is in the hands of
Netanyahu. All he has to do is say that all settlement activities,
even those in Jerusalem, will stop," Erekat, a top aide to
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said.
"We have had a peace process for 19 years, but the Israeli
settlement policy has not changed," he added.
-- SPA


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