Abbas: The road to Middle East peace is 'blocked'

Sep 19, 2009, 12:56 GMT

A photograph supplied by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) shows U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they meet in the prime minister\'s Jerusalem offices on 18 Septemvber 2009. EPA/AVI OHAYON

Cairo - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that he believes recent efforts to revive the Middle East peace process have now failed, after US envoy George Mitchell left the region without progress.

Speaking after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak in Cairo, Abbas said 'I believe the road is blocked now. No compromise was achieved.'

Abbas has made a total freeze on Israeli construction in the West Bank a condition for meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office nearly six months ago.

Netanyahu last week said that Israel was willing to consider a temporary halt to construction in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but that construction in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967, would continue.

Mitchell left the region earlier on Friday without giving a statement after exhaustive talks with Netanyahu, Abbas, and the heads of state of Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt over the previous six days.

'The United States has asked Israel to abide by the first item in the Road Map, which says that settlements should be halted. But the Israeli government does not want this. So there is no common ground between us,' the Palestinian president said.

The first item in the so-called road map for peace, first proposed by former US president George W Bush in 2002 and subsequently backed by the United Nations, Russia, and the European Union, calls for a freeze on Israeli settlement activity, Palestinian political reform and an end to Palestinian violence.

'Mitchell will continue his efforts to achieve his goal after the end of the UN's General Assembly in New York,' Abbas said.

'(Mitchell) should concentrate on the Israeli side,' Abbas said. 'The Palestinian and Arab side is doing everything it can' to revive peace talks.

Abbas is expected to continue to Jordan to brief King Abdullah on the outcome of his meetings with Mitchell.