Abbas: There is no secret channel for peace talks

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday denied recent Israeli news reports that secret peace talks have made progress on some of the most sensitive issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the latest account, Haaretz said Israel had offered the Palestinians a territorial link between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Abbas's office called the Haaretz report "baseless." In a statement, it said, "there is no secret channel and what was published about scenarios and expectations in some Israeli media is not true."