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Palestinian delegation heads for Washington talks in December: official

Arab World Materials 30 October 2014 16:27 (UTC +04:00)
A senior Palestinian delegation is to head to the United States in December for talks with U.S. officials in Washington on the future of the Middle East peace process
Palestinian delegation heads for Washington talks in December: official

A senior Palestinian delegation is to head to the United States in December for talks with U.S. officials in Washington on the future of the Middle East peace process, an official said on Thursday, Xinhua reported.

Reyad al-Malki, the foreign affairs minister in the unity government, told "Voice of Palestine" radio that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to resume the talks in December.

He said that Abbas and Kerry met in Cairo on Oct. 12 during the donors' conference to rebuild Gaza and agreed that a Palestinian delegation goes to Washington and hold talks with U.S. officials on the Middle East peace.

"The delegation will include Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiation and Majed Farraj, the chief of Palestinian intelligence," said al-Malki, adding that "the talks will focus on how to get out the current impasse," al-Malki said.

The U.S. has been sponsoring the direct Israeli-Palestinian talks which stopped last March after it went on for nine months. The talks were suspended following deep disputes between the two sides on the settlement issue.

Al-Malki also said that the Palestinian leadership is exerting all the needed efforts through contacts with the U.S. and other countries to carry out their future political plans.

The Palestinians plan to go to the UN Security Council and demand a resolution that sets up a time schedule for ending the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.

The Palestinian officials are still very much concerned over the fact that the U.S. would use a veto vote against a draft resolution that calls for ending the Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders.

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