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| Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel (C), Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and U.S. President Barack Obama talk after they delivering remarks to the press following their individual meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington on September 1, 2010. |
October 08, 2010 [KATAKAMI / RANTBURG /Al Arabiya] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas signaled his intention to resign if US peace talks with Israel fail, a front man for the Paleostinian National Council (PNC) said Thursday.
In a PNC meeting early this week, President Abbas said, "I may be sitting on this (presidency) chair only for another week," according to Khalid Mismar.
A senior Paleostinian official said on Thursday he saw no hope of a serious peace processor with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in some of the darkest comments to date on the U.S.-mediated talks.
A senior Paleostinian official said on Thursday he saw no hope of a serious peace processor with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in some of the darkest comments to date on the U.S.-mediated talks.
Yasser Abed Rabbo's remarks signaled deep Paleostinian skepticism about the outlook for the talks, which began on Sept. 2 but have been on hold since an Israeli moratorium on new settlement building in the West Bank expired last week.
The United States wants the talks to continue and has been trying to find a formula to save the negotiations.
"There will be no serious political process while Netanyahu's government pursues settlements," Abed Rabbo told Voice of Paleostine radio.
"I can go further still and say that there will be no serious political process with Netanyahu's government."
Netanyahu, who heads a cabinet dominated by pro-settler parties, including his own Likud, has said he will not extend the freeze which his government had enforced for 10 months.
Abbas and Netanyahu met three times before the end of the moratorium. The Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) said on Saturday talks would not resume until Israel halted settlement building on land where the Paleostinians aim to found a state.
The United States and European Union had called on Israel to extend the settlement freeze. The expiry of the moratorium had been seen as an early obstacle facing U.S. President Barack
B.O.Obama's push to end the six-decade-old conflict within a year.
