PLO: "No peace talks with Israel if settlements continue" (Roundup)

Oct 2, 2010, 18:27 GMT

Ramallah - The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed Saturday in a meeting in Ramallah that the Palestinian government should stop direct peace talks with Israel if settlement activity continued in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Reading from a statement, Yaser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of the PLO's executive committee, said Israel's failure to extend a 10- month partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank had made the negotiations 'devoid of any meaning.'

The Israeli government bore 'full responsibility for the current impasse in the peace process' and 'the collapse of negotiations,' he continued.

The Palestinians want Israel to extend the construction freeze in the occupied territory which expired last Sunday.

They have threatened to end the peace talks, which started in early September, if it does not.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told reporters in Ramallah that Abbas had informed US special envoy George Mitchell of the Palestinian position.

'So far all efforts have reached a deadlock,' Abu Rudeineh said, in reference to efforts by Mitchell and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend the freeze order.

'There is no breakthrough and conditions will be at a stalemate for a long time,' he said, adding that 'the US tried to find a formula, but it failed because Israel would not respond.'

Netanyahu has so far made no moves to extend the moratorium, despite calls from world leaders to do so.

The PLO remarks come before the Arab League committee meet in a summit initially scheduled for Monday but likely to be postponed until later this week.

The block will decide whether to extend its support to the Palestinian government for the direct negotiations.

In an attempt to save the negotiations before the meeting next week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held phone conversations on Friday with Netanyahu, Abbas and Mitchell, a UN spokesman in New York said Saturday.

Ban expressed in a statement sent to reporters his hope that Israel would 'expand its restraint policy in the settlements,' in order to 'create the right atmosphere for successful negotiations.'

Tzipi Livni, leader of the Israeli opposition party Kadima, also called on Netanyahu to take decisions that would enable the peace negotiations to continue.

'Netanyahu must choose the real long-term interests of Israel rather than his own personal political interests,' Livni said.

Kadima would 'support any decision that facilitates the talks and strengthens Israel's security interests,' she added.

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