By Xinhua
Ramallah : The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will resort to Arab countries to make a high decision if talks with Israel failed, PNA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday.
“If we reached a deadlock, we will go back to our Arab nations to make the suitable decision from the highest levels,” Abbas told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Earlier reports quoted a member of the Palestinian negotiation team as saying that the Palestinians will declare their statehood unilaterally if the talks with Israel continued to achieve no progress.
But chief negotiator Saeb Erekat denied the statements and said that this issue was excluded.
Abbas also promised that “we will keep on talks with Israel for the hope of reaching a deal this year, including all final-status issues like Jerusalem.”
Abbas met Tuesday with Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and discussed ways of speeding up the talks. The PNA rejects Olmert’s demands to postpone talks on Jerusalem issue and affirm all the issues must be discussed as package.