July 28, 2010
Israel: Palestinians have set ‘impossible’ conditions for direct peace talks
Vice PM Shalom slams Palestinian terms for direct talks, AFP reports; Abbas expected to tell Arab League that indirect talks have not progressed enough to justify face-to-face negotiations.
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has laid down “impossible” conditions for moving to direct peace talks, Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said on Wednesday, according to French news agency AFP.
“The Palestinians have set three impossible conditions: that the negotiations start from the point they left off at the end of 2008 when Ehud Olmert was prime minister, that they be based on a total Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines and that the freeze of [settlement] construction continue,” Shalom was quoted as saying.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to begin direct talks with the Palestinians immediately, but the Palestinians have demanded certain guarantees they say are necessary to ensure that these talks succeed where past rounds have failed.
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