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Abbas links reviving peace talks with Israeli response

Arab World Materials 21 April 2012 19:59 (UTC +04:00)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday linked the reviving of peace talks with Israel's response to a letter he recently sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Xinhua reported.

The letter, delivered a few days ago, outlines the Palestinian vision and conditions to resume the negotiations that have stopped in 2010.

Nabil Abu Rdineh, spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, said that Abbas met with U.S. Middle East envoy David Hale and told him that "If the response was positive, this will be encouraging to move things in the right direction."

Abbas also told Hale, who he met in the West Bank city of Ramallah, that he expects the Israeli response to come in two weeks.

The letter detailed a series of Palestinian demands, including ending Israeli raids in the West Bank and recognizing the borders of the future Palestinian state, with its capital in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians also want a strict halt for Jewish settlement building and the release of prisoners.

But Israeli media reported earlier that Netanyahu wants the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table without preconditions.

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