Abbas: Israel Caused Peace Talks To Fail

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Israel for the failure of the latest round of exploratory peace talks in Amman on Saturday.

Abbas made the comments to reporters in Ramallah on Saturday after a meeting with visiting Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore. He claimed that during talks mediated by Jordan in recent weeks, Israel had presented an unclear position on security matters and on the question of borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Palestinian sources said Israel’s border proposal would have prevented the establishment a Palestinian state.

Palestinian officials said on Friday that the Israeli delegation’s proposal would in practice have created borders based on the route of Israel’s security fence. They said Israel was also demanding the right to retain East Jerusalem and Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank. The Palestinian sources said this would divide Palestinian territory into cantons and deprive a future state of territorial contiguity.

The Palestinian delegation was headed by Saeb Erekat, and Israel’s delegation was led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s envoy Isaac Molho.

The central committee of Abbas’ Fatah party is scheduled to convene Sunday to receive a report from Abbas on the details of the Amman talks.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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