Palestinians have received no invite to 3-way meet, Abbas aide says

Aug 26, 2009, 13:56 GMT

Ramallah - Palestinians have not yet received an invitation for a three-way meeting in New York between US President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, an aide to the Palestinian leader said Wednesday.

Yasser Abed Rabbo was commenting on reports of a possible mini- summit between the three men at the United Nations next month.

Reports from Ramallah Wednesday said Abbas was open to meeting Netanyahu, but this would not be a formal resumption of peace talks between the two sides.

The meeting, if it takes place, would be the first between the two leaders since Netanyahu took office at the end of March.

Palestinians have demanded a complete halt to Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank as a prerequisite for resuming peace talks, which were suspended late last year as Israel entered an election campaign, and have not yet been renewed.

Abbas, addressing the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) on Wednesday, again stressed that negotiations will not resume without a halt to all Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Netanyahu has rejected completely halting Israeli settlement activities - a demand also made by the United States - saying that while Israel will build no new settlements, it wants to continue construction inside existing ones, to accommodate population expansion. It calls this practice 'natural growth.'

Abbas also rejected restarting peace talks from scratch, saying they must resume at the point at which they left off last year. He also said that the option of establishing a Palestinian state with temporary borders was one the Palestinians refused.