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发帖数: 438 | 1 Arab League supports Abbas's decision to halt talks
By JPOST.COM STAFF, HERB KEINON AND KHALED ABU TOA
10/08/2010 22:45
Foreign ministers meeting in Libya back PA president's decision to stop
negotiations as long as Israeli building in settlements continues; express
hope the US will continue to pressure J'lem to renew freeze.
Talkbacks (1)
The Arab League announced on Friday that it supports Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas's decision to stop peace talks with Israel following
Israel's refusal to halt building in West Bank settlements, Reuters
reported.
The Arab League was meeting in Libya to discuss the peace talks which began
early in September but have stalled following Israel's decision not to
extend a moratorium on settlement building which ended after 10 months on
September 26. League representatives added that they are hopeful the US will
continue to pressure Israel to agree to a renewal of the construction
freeze.
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Earlier on Friday, AFP quoted a diplomat at the Arab League meeting as
saying that Arab countries planned to give the US one month to find a
compromise which could save the peace talks.
Other diplomats attending the meetings said that some Arab countries were
proposing that Abbas return to indirect negotiations to avoid a total
breakdown of Mideast peace talks.
Arab League head Amr Moussa stated that Israel's negative stance was
responsible for stalling negotiations. He added that the Arab Foreign
ministers at the meeting did not intend to tell Abbas what to do. He said
that they would attempt to find alternative suggestions to the current peace
process which is failing to "bear fruit."
Abbas arrived in Libya on Thursday to seek Arab League backing for his
decision to quit direct talks with Israel until the settlement construction
moratorium is renewed, amid no signs that the US and Israel have a formula
in hand to break the impasse.
Although Ambassador to the US Michael Oren on Thursday was the first Israeli
or American official to acknowledge that Washington had offered Jerusalem
inducements to extend the freeze, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – in
public statements he made later in the day – sounded more like someone
trying to shift the blame for failure onto the other side, rather than
someone on the verge of announcing a breakthrough.
“We honored the government decision and took upon ourselves a commitment to
the international community and the US to start the peace talks,”
Netanyahu said of the 10- month moratorium that ended nearly two weeks ago.
“The Palestinians waited over nine months and, immediately at the onset of
the talks, set a precondition even though they had promised that there would
be no preconditions.”
The prime minister said that just as his government honored its commitment
regarding the settlement moratorium, “we very much hope that the
Palestinians will stay in the peace talks.”
Meanwhile, Abbas has returned to his old habit of threatening to resign if
Israel does not comply with his demands, making his latest threat during a
meeting in Jordan on Wednesday night with members of the Palestine National
Council, the PLO’s parliament- in-exile.
Khaled Musmar, a PLO official, said that Abbas hinted during the meeting
that he would resign from his post if the peace talks with Israel failed. | W*F
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