Gaza, May 03: Acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas says he would meet US President Barack Obama in Washington before the peace conference.
But Palestinians say if the illegal settlement construction is not halted, no negotiations — direct or indirect — will be resumed between the Palestinians and Israelis.
The negotiations which were expected to start in March were delayed by Israel’s announcement of a settlement construction project on occupied land near East Jerusalem al-Quds.
Arab League as well as Arab states have approved this week four months of US-mediated talks.
Obama has given a commitment he would not allow “any provocative measures by either side,” Abbas said in an interview published on Sunday in the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam.
He noted that he has been invited by Obama to Washington later this month “in an attempt to push the peace process forward.” He declined to give any specific date for the visit, though.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) officials said the PLO’s executive committee was likely to convene within days to give its final decision on whether to resume the stalled negotiations.
Abbas has long insisted Israel freeze settlement building before any negotiations could resume. He has also rejected a temporary construction moratorium that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered in the occupied West Bank last November as insufficient, according to Reuters.
Palestinians were angered after Tel Aviv in March announced a 1,600-unit project during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.
Senior Fatah official Nabil Amer announced on Sunday that unless Israel froze settlement construction, no negotiations would take place.
——–Agencies