WEST BANK: Palestinians put conditions on opening talks

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REPORTING FROM RAMALLAH, WEST BANK -– The Palestinian Authority on Thursday said that certain conditions would have to be met before it could agree to a call for Palestinians and Israel to resume talks within one month.

Instead of endorsing the request by the so-called diplomatic quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- the PA chose to wait and see whether Israel would agree to stop settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories and to hold negotiations based on 1967 borders.

Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had convened his Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee to discuss a response to a statement the quartet issued in New York last Friday.

The committee concluded that although the statement had “a number of encouraging elements ... the government of Israel has to make a clear-cut commitment to the basis and references mentioned in the quartet statement, particularly ... with halting settlements and recognition of the 1967 borders to launch the desired negotiations as soon as possible.”

The committee said in a statement that an Israeli decision to build 1,100 housing units in an East Jerusalem settlement is proof that Israel “is not ready to respect international will, the basis of the peace process and international resolutions. Rather, it seeks to sabotage international efforts to launch a serious peace process.”

The statement stressed that the Palestinian Authority “cannot agree to conduct negotiations ... while settlements continue and the land is being stolen.”

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-- Maher Abukhater