WEST BANK / FILE: Palestinian President warns Israeli settlement expansion will derail peace talks

Record ID: 566429

  • Title: WEST BANK / FILE: Palestinian President warns Israeli settlement expansion will derail peace talks
  • Date: 30th August 2010
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (FILE-AUGUST 10, 2010) (REUTERS) (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS MEETING WITH U.S. PEACE ENVOY GEORGE MITCHELL
  • Embargoed: 14th September 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVABELOVQPMZWBS4LGL072LWKW3V
  • Story Text: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday (August 29) that Israel would be to blame for the failure of a new round of U.S.-sponsored peace talks if it continues settlement expansion on occupied land.
    "The Israeli government alone will bear the responsibility of threatening these negotiations with collapse and failure if it continues settlement expansion in all its forms in all the Palestinian lands it has occupied since 1967," Abbas said in a televised speech to the Palestinian people.
    The Palestinians have threatened to pull out of the face-to-face peace talks with Israel, due to begin on Thursday (September 2) in Washington, unless it extends a moratorium on West Bank settlement building when it expires on Sept. 26.
    The Palestinians aim to found a state alongside Israel in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel occupied the territories in the 1967 Middle East war.
    Israel imposed a 10-month, partial freeze on settlement building in the West Bank last November. The moratorium excluded West Bank land annexed by Israel to Jerusalem municipality in 1967 in a move that has never won international recognition.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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