PA delegation to deliver letter to Netanyahu

Chief PLO negotiator Erekat says the letter will be as a "rock thrown into still Israeli waters."

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY Prime Minister Salam Fayyad 370 (photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY Prime Minister Salam Fayyad 370
(photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
A delegation headed by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is expected to deliver a letter from PA President Mahmoud Abbas to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu after Passover, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said Tuesday.
He said that although no date has been set for the meeting, the two sides will talk about the issue after the Jewish holiday ends.
The two sides will set a date for the meeting, during which Fayyad will deliver the letter outlining the PA’s conditions for resuming the stalled peace talks with Israel, Erekat said.
In addition to Fayyad, the delegation will consist of Erekat and PLO secretary-general Yasser Abed Rabbo.
He described Abbas’s letter as a “rock that would be thrown into still Israeli waters.”
The PLO negotiator called on the Quartet, whose representatives are scheduled to meet in New York on Wednesday, to put pressure on Israel to fulfill its obligations, especially halting settlement construction.
Erekat said that if the Quartet does not want to employ pressure on Israel, it should at least publicly hold the Jewish state responsible for derailing the peace process.
“What is stopping the Israeli government from carrying out these issues?” he asked. “The road map is clear and specifically calls for a cessation of settlement construction, including natural growth [in settlements], and ending the occupation that began in 1967.”