Ramallah – (IINA) January 08, 2008 – The vast majority of Palestinians expect the revived peace talks with Israelis to fail, according to a poll released yesterday ahead of US President George W Bush’s visit. A total of 69.5% of those polled said the peace talks re-launched at a US conference in Annapolis in November will “certainly fail” or “fail,” according to the survey by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR). Only 22.5% of respondents said the talks will “certainly succeed” or “succeed,” AFP reported quoting PSR sources.
Almost 80% said that the Annapolis conference where the talks were formally restarted did not give an impetus to the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process, compared with 11% who thought otherwise. The survey also found that 57.4% do not think Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is strong enough to negotiate a permanent settlement with Israel on the core issues of the conflict – settlements, Jerusalem and refugees.
HA/IINA