BICOM

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that he is willing to cooperate with the Middle East Quartet towards resuming peace talks only if Israel freezes all settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, yesterday in a meeting with US Middle East Envoy David Hale in Ramallah. In addition, Abbas said, Israel must accept the 1967 lines as the basis for a two-state solution. The Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted Abbas as saying, “resuming negotiations with Israel requires the Israeli government to uphold its responsibilities; to stop settlement activities in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, and accept the two-state solution based on 1967 borders.”

Abbas also used the opportunity to urge Hale to change his country’s stance on the PA’s bid for statehood at the UN. The Palestinians submitted a bid for membership of the UN on 23 September. On Friday, a Security Council committee noted that there was a lack of support for the proposal to pass in a vote.

In related news, today the Quartet representatives, including its envoy Tony Blair, will meet with Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat in Ramallah and speak in Jerusalem with the prime minister’s special envoy Yitzhak Molho.

In the last months, the Quartet has explored a number of conciliatory formulas, including Palestinian recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, in exchange for a West Bank settlement freeze.

An alternative formula asks the Palestinians to drop their demand for a settlement freeze in exchange for acceptable language on the 1967 borders as a basis for a two-state solution. However, as of Sunday night, no formula had been found that would bring both sides back to the table.