Abbas blames deadlocked talks with Israel on ongoing settlement construction
MOSCOW. June 26 (Interfax) - Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reply to his letter that contained proposals regarding the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
"Regrettably, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reply to my letter did not address the essence of the problems it raised, which are the core of any talks between us," Abbas said in an interview with Interfax ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the Palestinian territories.
"Namely, the borders of the Palestinian state, the withdrawal from the occupied territories. His letter was too generalized and merely calling for a return to the negotiating table without references or any commitments to freezing settlement construction," he said, when asked if the exchange of letters between him and Netanyahu had produced any positive results.
As for whether Palestine is ready to accept a compromise solution that would steer the talks out of the impasse, Abbas remarked that the "Palestinian side showed great flexibility in various situations".
"We accepted non-direct talks, rapprochement talks, and also direct talks in order to achieve a peace-building settlement based on the decisions adopted by two countries and on the land-for-peace principle," Abbas explained.
"But the ongoing construction of Jewish homes crawling like a crayfish throughout the West Bank territory leads to a deadlock. So the ball is in Israel's court," he added.
In the middle of April, Netanyahu received a letter spelling out the terms on which the Palestinian side is ready to resume peace talks with Israel. It demanded a halt to Jewish settlement building in the West Bank of the Jordan, recognition of the June 5, 1967 borders as the groundwork for a future agreement, and the release of all Palestinians jailed by Israeli authorities prior to the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993.
Netanyahu's reply came in less than a month.