PA: Peace talks cannot be revived

PM Netanyahu says he is waiting for Palestinian president to resume negotiations, but Palestinian leadership appears to have lost hope. Sources say PA deeply disappointed with the lack of American pressure on Israel, believes peace deal won't reached during Abbas' term

Ali Waked

Published: 01.24.10, 18:31 / Israel News

US President Barack Obama's special Mideast envoy George Mitchell has left Israel after a series of meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah, and sources in the Palestinian Authority said Sunday afternoon that the Palestinian leadership is not ruling out the possibility that a peace agreement will not be reached during President Mahmoud Abbas' term

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed his hope that the Palestinians will show an interest in the peace process, but the sources noted that the Palestinians were deeply disappointed with the lack of American pressure on Israel, which is turning the peace process into "a corpse which cannot be revived in the nature of talks held up to the past few days."

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The sources added that the Fatah movement has made a strategic decision not to change its stand on the West Bank settlements and the nature of the negotiations. "The Palestinian street backs our stand that we must not return to the negotiation table based on the Israeli conditions, while there is no serious solution in the horizon."

The Palestinians also accused Israel of bringing about the collapse of the outline formed recently with the conditions presented by the Jewish state. The sources noted that the Americans have begun looking into a possibility of another interim agreement.

A senior Palestinian official told Ynet that "resuming the negotiations will only be possible with a clear American letter of guarantees referring to a state within the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital and to a solution of all other issues included in the permanent agreement."

According to the source, the Palestinians are unfazed by Netanyahu's remarks that the Palestinians have gone too far with their demands. "This is not a matter of going too far. We don't think that the settlement issue is going too far," he said.

Another PA source added that as long as the settlements exist, the negotiations will not be serious.

"If we discuss a certain area and the construction continues and reduces that same area, what seriousness are we talking about and what area can we negotiate? We hope the Americans realize that their attempts to maneuver between both parties' demands in the past year have failed and that there is one side to blame – Israel," the source stated.

The Palestinian despair appears clear. "We are beginning to understand that without minimal American pressure, this will not happen soon and perhaps not even in the coming years."

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