Abbas, won't start from scratch
צילום: AFP
Abbas won't start peace talks from scratch
Palestinian president tells visiting Russian foreign minister starting peace talks from scratch with new Israeli governmet 'out of the question' adds, 'If settlements don't stop, all negotiations will be futile'
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that he would not start from scratch in peace talks with Israel after the formation of a new government there.
"To begin from scratch is out of the question," Abbas told reporters after holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"All future dialogue between us and Israel has to be preceded by a total stop of settlement activity, the lifting of roadblocks and the return of Israeli forces to their positions before September 28, 2000," the start of the second Palestinian intifada or uprising, he said.
"If the settlements don't stop, all negotiations will be futile and useless," he said.
Following last week's parliamentary election in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party is widely expected to become the next prime minister, possibly at the head of a coalition of far-right parties.
Netanyahu put the brakes on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks when he was prime minister in 1996-1999, in part by authorising major new Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
