Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will resist renewed US pressure to resume peace talks unless Israel first fully halts settlement building in the occupied West Bank. Abbas's remarks to Egypt's Voice of the Arabs radio appeared to pour cold water on a renewed US effort to broker a resumption of negotiations stalled for more than a year. Abbas has insisted on a complete halt to Israeli building in the Israeli occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. He has resisted US pressure to go back to the talks right away. Asked how he would respond if the US insisted on an immediate resumption of talks, Abbas said: “We will not accept this and we have already conveyed our position to the American administration.” US pressure to resume talks without a full settlement freeze was “unjust”, he said in the interview conducted this week and rebroadcast by Voice of Palestine radio Thursday. Abbas says a partial, 10-month freeze announced by Netanyahu in November is insufficient for a resumption of the peace talks aimed at ending the Palestinians' decades-long conflict with the Jewish state. The Palestinians aim to establish a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. Abbas said if the United States was not able to force Israel to halt settlement activity, then “how could it implement an agreed deal?”
