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Palestinians accept invitation to direct peace talks

Arab World Materials 21 August 2010 03:20 (UTC +04:00)
Palestinians accepted Friday night an invitation to begin direct peace talks with Israel, issued earlier in the day, but warned that the negotiations would collapse if Israel continued building in West Bank settlements, dpa reported.
Palestinians accept invitation to direct peace talks

Palestinians accepted Friday night an invitation to begin direct peace talks with Israel, issued earlier in the day, but warned that the negotiations would collapse if Israel continued building in West Bank settlements, dpa reported.

"The Palestine Liberation Organization has agreed to go to start direct talks to solve all permanent status issues," senior PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo told reporters after a meeting of the organization's executive committee in Ramallah.

The invitation for direct talks was issued separately Friday by the United States and the European Union, and called on the sides to resume direct negotiations next month in hopes of reviving the long- stalled Middle East peace process.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, however, also told reporters in Ramallah that Palestinians would not be able to continue the negotiations if Israel issued more settlement construction tenders after September 26, the end date of a partial 10-month freeze on construction in Israeli West Bank settlements.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the moratorium last November, following months of US pressure. The freeze excluded public buildings and did not include building in East Jerusalem, to the chagrin of the Palestinians.

The Israeli leader, in a statement issued shortly after the announcements by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Washington and the European Union in Brussels, also welcomed the direct talks.

The last round of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians was suspended in late 2008, as Israel headed for an election campaign that brought Netanyahu to power.

Indirect talks between the sides, mediated by the United States, began in spring this year.

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