Senior Palestinian official: US, EU pressuring PA to renew peace talks with Israel

EU ambassador to Israel says that there is a growing desperation about the lack of progress between Israel and the Palestinians.

By ABU KHALED TOAMEH
Netanyahu and Abbas (photo credit: REUTERS)
Netanyahu and Abbas
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Palestinian Authority leadership is under pressure from the international community to resume the peace talks with Israel, a Palestinian official was quoted on Saturday as saying.
The official told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the several countries have also expressed their desire to see a summit between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The official said that following the recent Israeli general election several European countries have come up with new ideas for reviving the peace process.
Some of these countries have even hinted that they would reduce financial aid to the Palestinians as part of the pressure to persuade the PA to agree to the resumption of the peace talks, the official said. One of the ideas being floated around calls for holding a summit between Abbas and Netanyahu in a European country or the US in order to exchange ideas about the stalled peace talks, the official added.
Meanwhile, Chief PLO Negotiator Saeb Erekat again attacked the new coalition government in Israel, claiming it came to “bury the two-state solution.”
Dubbing the Likud-led coalition “extremist and evil,” Erekat said that the Palestinians were in a race against time to file war crime charges against Israel with the International Criminal Court.
“The formation of the new coalition government in Israel, which consists of extremist parties, means that the peace process is non-existent,” Erekat said in an interview with the Palestinian daily Al-Quds.
“This new government came to destroy the two-state solution. This government will be a source for evil, extremism, chaos, violence and instability in the region.”
Erekat said that Palestinian teams were now working to file war crime charges against Israel on the issues of settlements and the Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip last year. He said that these two files would be brought before the international tribunal “as soon as possible.”
Erekat called on the US Administration to stop dealing with Israel as if it were a “country above the law.” He also called on the US Administration to stop defending Israel at the UN Security Council.
“The Americans are well aware that this Israeli government is not a government of peace,” Erekat added. “They also know that Netanyahu is not a man who wants the two-state solution.”


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