By Xinhua
Ramallah : Disappointed with the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a Palestinian negotiator Tuesday called for finding new alternatives on the Palestine issue.
“I’m afraid that the Palestinian side is still so far from reaching an agreement with the Israeli side,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo, who is also a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) executive committee.
Rabbo attributed the slow progress in the talks to the Israeli policies against the West Bank such as the building of “settlement, barrier and checkpoints”.
He called on the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to “think about alternative options because adopting one political strategy was a political suicide”.
The negotiations were launched during a US-hosted peace conference in late November but so far achieved practically nothing.
The PNA complains that Israel continues to build settlements in the West Bank though the first phase of the US-backed Road Map peace plan calls for immediate suspension of the settlement activities.
Rabbo also called on Israel to lift the blockade on the Palestinian territories.
Earlier, Rabbo said that the Palestinians will unilaterally declare their statehood if the talks with Israel failed. But chief negotiator Ahmed Qurei denied such an intention.