Abbas: Peace talks with Israel to run full course

The peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will run their full course, “regardless of what happens on the ground,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday.

“We are committed and we will go to the full nine months, and then we will take the appropriate decision, Abbas told AFP, a day ahead of an official visit by French President Francois Hollande which is expected to focus on peace talks. Hollande arrived in Israel on Sunday for meetings with Israeli officials.

“We have committed to continue the negotiations for nine months, regardless of what happens on the ground,” he told the French news agency without elaborating.

Under heavy US pressure and following intense shuttle diplomacy by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks in July after a three-year hiatus, agreeing to a nine-month timeline, set to expire in March 2014. For the duration of the talks, the Palestinians agreed to suspend their efforts for international recognition and to not pursue Israel in the international legal arena. Israel committed to freeing 104 Palestinian prisoners who committed their crimes before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. The second phase of that agreement was completed late last month.

The negotiations have hit some hurdles so far, including an uptick in terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinians, with the latest incident occurring just last week when a 16-year-old Palestinian youth stabbed an 18-year-old IDF soldier to death while the latter was sleeping on a bus. Israel has also made continued announcements of planned construction in the settlements, the latest of which was swiftly scuttled last week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Palestinian negotiating team resigned last week, blaming continued settlement activity. Three weeks earlier, Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator, and Mohammed Ishtayeh, had also tendered their resignation citing Israel’s “lack of integrity,” following Israel’s announcement that it intends to demolish 20 Arab-owned buildings in east Jerusalem.

Neither resignation was formally accepted by Abbas. “The delegation to the talks handed in its resignation which we have still not accepted,” he told AFP, adding that the PA leadership was still deciding what to do — either convince the team to return, or appoint a new one.

Earlier this month, Kerry launched an unusually bitter public attack on Israeli policies in the West Bank, and warned that if current peace talks fail, Israel could see a third intifada amid growing international isolation. He also said that calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions would increase in such a case.

“The Palestinian people know that the way to peace is through negotiation. But they also know we are insisting on Palestinian constants,” Abbas said, referring to Palestinian demands that an agreement be based on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and a resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem created with the establishment of Israel in 1948.

“That is what the Palestinian people are asking us to get from the Israeli side. If we don’t get that, we won’t sign anything,” said the PA president.