(dpa) - A senior Palestinian official Thursday called for halting negotiations with Israel in response to a new Israeli decision to intensify settlement activity in the Palestinian areas.
Yaser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee and member of the Palestinian negotiating team with Israel, told the official Voice of Palestine radio that the Palestinian Authority should halt talks with Israel as long as it expands settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
"We cannot continue negotiations and have a political process under an Israel deception and a United States administration unwilling to do anything about it," he said.
"If (the US) is unable to stop (Israel's) settlements, it will not be able to bring peace," he said.
The Palestinian Authority "should generate a major crisis equal to the crisis Israel has generated and we should start by saying enough, we cannot continue with political negotiations," he said.
"This (Israeli settlement) conspiracy is the peak of all conspiracies and it is called negotiations, dialogue and political efforts, yet we do not see any of this on the ground," Abed Rabbo said.
"What we see is changing facts on the ground and taking advantage of the regional and international situation to implement the scheme."