By Xinhua
Ramallah : The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Tuesday vowed that peace talks with Israel will remain suspended unless Israel withdraws its decision to build new settlements and accepts ceasefire with the Palestinians. Saeb Erekat, a senior PNA negotiator, told Voice of Palestine radio that the upcoming meeting between Palestinian and Israeli negotiation crews with a U.S. envoy “doesn’t mean that the negotiations are resumed.”
The meeting, which will be held with U.S. General William Fraser on Thursday, “comes in the context of implementing the first phase” of the U.S.-backed Road Map peace plan, Erekat explained.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas halted the PNA negotiations in response to a deadly offensive which Israel carried out in Gaza early this month.
As Abbas was about to resume the talks, Israel announced plans to build 750 new houses in a settlement near Jerusalem, provoking the PNA and violating the Road Map which is the reference of the negotiations.
Erekat welcomed the international community’s condemnation of the settlement activities, calling on the world to “force Israel to cancel all the settlement decisions and to hold from making such decision in the future.”