Tuesday 10 August 2010

Abbas: I am ready for peace talks with Israel if the int'l quartet told me so


[ 10/08/2010 - 03:36 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Ex-chief of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mahmoud Abbas announced his readiness to engage anytime in direct negotiations with Israel if the international quartet committee gave him a go-ahead for that in accordance with the resolution it issued on March 19.

Abbas told journalists at his headquarters in Ramallah on Monday that his authority will go directly to the negotiation table whenever the issues of the negotiation basics and settlements are settled.

He claimed that the American administration rejected his proposals on establishing negotiation basics and holding a tripartite meeting between the PA, the US, and Israel to determine the negotiation principles, adding that his third proposal stipulated that the quartet committee should specify these basics.

Israel, however, confronts Abbas's negotiation tendencies with more settlement and Judaization activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

In another context, new leaked photos revealed that senior Fatah officials met with Israeli officials during a wedding party in Israel.

Israeli press sources said that Israeli war minister Ehud Barak, trade and industry minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, minister of welfare and social services Isaac Herzog, minister of agriculture Shalom Simhon and his wife Orna Simhon, director of the education ministry in the northern district, Knesset member Shaul Mofaz and other Israeli officials met and sat side by side with member of Fatah's central committee Jibril Al-Rajoub and director of Abbas's office and minister of housing Mohammed Shtayyeh.

The source added that the Palestinian officials were invited to the wedding party of the daughter of Barak's political advisor Saleh Tarif.

In a new development, Abbas's security militias kidnapped eight Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas Movement in the West Bank cities of Tulkarem, Nablus and Qalqiliya, according to the latest report received Tuesday by the PIC.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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