WEST BANK/UNITED STATES: Palestinian ruling Fatah party rejects direct talks with Israel as U.S. Mideast envoy arrives in the region

Record ID: 566344

  • Title: WEST BANK/UNITED STATES: Palestinian ruling Fatah party rejects direct talks with Israel as U.S. Mideast envoy arrives in the region
  • Date: 16th July 2010
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (JULY 15, 2010) (REUTERS) FATAH SPOKESPERSON FAHMI ZA'ARIR TALKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) FATAH SPOKESPERSON FAHMI ZA'ARIR, SAYING: "We cannot move to the direct negotiation, until we finish the four months and we have a positive progress in the proximity talks."
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2010 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA1NESGM7USJ80KMZ82MLKVWBRQ
  • Story Text: The Palestinian president's Fatah party said on Thursday (July 15) there should be no move to face-to-face Middle East peace talks sought by the United States without progress in the indirect talks it is mediating.
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy on Saturday (July 17), is facing pressure from Washington to agree to direct negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- who says he is ready to start talks with the Palestinian leader right away.
    But Abbas is wary of negotiating directly with an Israeli leader he believes unwilling to settle the Middle East conflict on terms acceptable to the Palestinians.
    "We cannot move to the direct negotiation, until we finish the four months (time frame given at the launch of the proximity talks) and we have a positive progress in the proximity talks," Fatah spokesperson Fahmi Za'arir told Reuters.
    The Fatah stand illustrated the domestic pressure Abbas is facing to resist more direct peace talks with Israel.
    The Palestinian leader has been a central figure in years of fruitless diplomacy aimed at negotiating the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
    In a written statement released on Thursday Fatah blamed what they said was a lack of credibility on the part of Israel for a lack of progress in the indirect talks, which got under way two months ago and are being mediated by George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy.
    Abbas says the indirect talks should make progress towards agreement on the borders of the state the Palestinians aim to establish alongside Israel on land it occupied in a 1967 war and security arrangements for the "two-state solution".
    In a speech on Saturday, he also said Israel must halt building Jewish settlements on occupied land. But he did not repeat his demand for a full settlement halt as a condition for direct talks with Netanyahu.
    Netanyahu has said he is willing to discuss right away the future of Jewish settlements if the Palestinians enter direct talks.
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