Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned approval of the construction of new apartments in West Bank settlements is "unacceptable," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday in Paris, according to dpa. "What the Israeli government said (about the planned construction) is not useful. It is unacceptable for us. We want a freeze on all settlement construction," Abbas said after a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Earlier Friday an Israeli official said Netanyahu plans to approve the construction of hundreds of new apartments in the West Bank, before accepting US and Palestinian demands for a temporary settlement freeze. Abbas told journalists that a possible summit meeting with Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama in New York, on the margins of a UN General Assembly meeting, depended "on steps that are taken beforehand regarding a settlement construction freeze." Late Thursday, after a meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Abbas said that the entire Mideast peace process depended on a freeze on Israeli settlement construction. "Regarding the peace process, we are prepared to continue the negotiations if Israel stops settlement construction," he said.
