Fayyad slams IDF's killing of two Hamas terrorists

PA prime minister's comments come ahead of important meeting with Arab League poised to back Abbas decision to leave direct talks.

By HERB KEINON, KHALED ABU TOAMEH
fayyaf hebron 311 (photo credit: AP)
fayyaf hebron 311
(photo credit: AP)
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salem Fayyad responded harshly to the IDF's killing of two Hamas terrorists on Friday.
"The path to peace does come by way of killing our citizens, harming them, establishing settlements or the terror of settlers," said Fayyad.
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PA President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Libya on Thursday to seek Arab League backing for his decision to quit direct talks with Israel until the settlement construction moratorium is renewed, amid no signs that the US and Israel have a formula in hand to break the impasse.
Although Ambassador to the US Michael Oren on Thursday was the first Israeli or American official to acknowledge that Washington had offered Jerusalem inducements to extend the freeze, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – in public statements he made later in the day – sounded more like someone trying to shift the blame for failure onto the other side, rather than someone on the verge of announcing a breakthrough.
“We honored the government decision and took upon ourselves a commitment to the international community and the US to start the peace talks,” Netanyahu said of the 10- month moratorium that ended nearly two weeks ago.
“The Palestinians waited over nine months and, immediately at the onset of the talks, set a precondition even though they had promised that there would be no preconditions.”
The prime minister said that just as his government honored its commitment regarding the settlement moratorium, “we very much hope that the Palestinians will stay in the peace talks.”
The Arab foreign ministers will be meeting in the Libyan city of Serte on Friday.
Meanwhile,  Abbas has returned to his old habit of threatening to resign if Israel does not comply with his demands, making his latest threat during a meeting in Jordan on Wednesday night with members of the Palestine National Council, the PLO’s parliament- in-exile.
Khaled Musmar, a PLO official, said that Abbas hinted during the meeting that he would resign from his post if the peace talks with Israel failed.

Jpost.com staff contributed to this report.