Arab FMs to meet Friday RAMALLAH: The Palestinian leadership Saturday said there would be no further peace talks with Israel as long as it continued settlement construction in the occupied territories. The decision by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) strengthened President Mahmoud Abbas, who has threatened to walk out of US-backed talks relaunched a month ago over the recent resumption of building in the West Bank. However, Abbas has said he would not make a final decision on the talks until after meeting Arab foreign ministers in Libya on Friday, giving US mediators another few days to try to strike a compromise. “The resumption of negotiations requires tangible steps from Israel and the international community beginning with a halt of settlement activity,” the PLO said in a statement. “We have alternatives (to the negotiations) which we will announce soon,” it said after holding a special meeting attended by Abbas and members of his Fatah movement's Central Committee. It did not provide further details. “The Palestinian leadership holds the Israeli government responsible for foiling the international efforts and the peace process in the region because it is determined to combine negotiations with settlements,” it added. The PLO is the Palestinians' sole international representative. Fatah, meanwhile, appeared to have adopted an even harder line on the negotiations, with one member of the Central Committee suggesting the international community reconsider Israel's existence. “The ball is now in the court of the international community to stop the unilateral aggression on Palestinian lands on which a Palestinian state must be established,” Jibril Rajub told reporters. “If the world cannot do that, then it should re-examine the legitimacy of the continued existence of the state of Israel, which was established with an international birth certificate.” The Arab League Follow-up Committee on the peace talks will meet to form its own position on Friday in the Libyan city of Sirte, officials in Cairo said, after the meeting was twice postponed. Abbas plans to announce his decision after the meeting. – Agence France
