BICOM

If Israel is not prepared to stop settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem the Palestinian Authority will not return to the negotiating table and resume action against Israel through international bodies, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday.

“Israel must accept international legitimacy and stop construction in the settlements,” Abbas said during a cornerstone laying ceremony at a new building at the Palestinian embassy in Cairo. “These are not preconditions, but obligations which Israel must fulfill in accordance with international legitimacy. When Israel accepts these two obligations, we will be ready to return to the negotiations.”

Israel has repeatedly called on the PA to commence peace talks without preconditions. The latest round of talks took place in Amman at the beginning of the year, but they were abandoned by the Palestinians when they demanded a full settlement freeze as a condition for talks to continue.

Abbas said that PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat is scheduled to meet today with one of Netanyahu’s aides to discuss the stalled peace process. “After that, we will see what can be done,” Abbas said. “If he [Netanyahu] agrees, we would be ready to resume the talks.” But, Abbas added, if Israel is not ready to return to the negotiations, the PA would file a complaint with international bodies, he cautioned. “This is our right and we will go back to the United Nations,” Abbas said.

The PA leadership has decided to send a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding him responsible for undermining the PA, Abbas added. In this letter, Abbas said, the PA leadership wrote to Netanyahu: “You have made the PA a non-authority. You have taken away from the PA all its commitments and what it was doing and supervising. Now we have been left with nothing.” Abbas said that the letter would be sent to Netanyahu next week.