Abbas to announce new negotiation principles
If there's no Israeli response, he says, he'll go back to the UN
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will soon present a new outline to negotiations with Israel, the Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported on Monday.
Abbas spoke at the conference of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo Sunday, convened to discuss the situation in Syria. He said a letter was being drafted to be sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders.
No direct peace talks have taken place between Israel and the Palestinians since September 2010, when a moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements ended.
“If we do not get a response to our letters, we will turn to the UN Security Council, the General Assembly and other UN bodies,” Abbas told the assembly.
The Palestinian President added that negotiations could only resume if Israel froze building activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem; recognized the two-sate principle based on the pre-1967 borders; and released Palestinian prisoners.