A key Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) body was set to hold talks yesterday after Israel pulled out of US-sponsored peace negotiations in response to a Palestinian reconciliation deal with Hamas.
The meeting of the PLO’s Central Council at its West Bank headquarters in Ramallah was to start at 10am with a brief speech by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and are to continue today, when the Palestinian leader is scheduled to deliver a major address.
The council had called the meeting over the crisis in negotiations, but will also discuss the Wednesday unity deal with the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza.
Israel suspended the peace talks over the deal, saying it would have no dealings with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas, which is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state.
Israel and the US had been hoping to extend the faltering peace talks beyond their deadline on Tuesday next week, but the efforts hit a wall last month when Israel refused to release a final batch of Palestinian prisoners.
The Palestinians retaliated by applying to adhere to 15 international treaties and then Abbas, who heads the PLO, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah, listed conditions for extending the talks beyond Tuesday’s deadline.
Abbas said he would agree to an extension, if Israel freezes settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, frees the prisoners and begins discussions on the future borders of a promised Palestinian state.
Israel dismissed all the conditions.
In the unity deal penned this week, Hamas and the Fatah-led PLO agreed to establish a “national consensus” government under Abbas within weeks.
The reconciliation deal infuriated Israel, which said it would “not negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas, a terror organization that calls for the destruction of Israel,” and vowed unspecified “measures” in response.
Delegates from Hamas were invited to participate in the weekend PLO meeting, but sources from the Islamist movement said none of their officials would attend.
On Friday, US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said US efforts to broker a peace deal had not failed, but were in a “holding period” as Palestinians and Israelis decide their next move.
She said that Abbas had insisted that any government formed with Hamas backing would “represent his policies, and that includes recognition of Israel, commitment to non-violence, adherence to prior agreements and commitment to peaceful negotiations toward a two-state solution.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah informed Abbas on Friday that he would resign if the president deemed it necessary for the formation of the new unity government, official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
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