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Sat, Oct 02, 2010 | Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

PM Netanyahu Calls On PA President And Leadership To Continue Peace Talks

PM Netanyahu: “I hope that they will not now turn their backs on peace, and will continue the talks.”

In a statement issued by the PM’s Office, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership to continue the peace talks in order to reach an historic peace agreement within one year.

The Prime Minister said:

“The way to achieve an historic peace agreement between our two peoples is to sit around the negotiating table, seriously and continuously, and not to leave it, because it is the place to resolve the disputes between us.

Just one month ago, the Palestinians entered into direct peace talks, without preconditions, after my Government carried out a series of unilateral gestures in order to advance these talks.

In the previous 17-year period, the Palestinians held direct talks with Israeli governments while construction was being carried out in Judea and Samaria, including in the last year of the previous government.

I hope that they will not now turn their backs on peace, and will continue the talks in order to reach a framework agreement within one year.”

U.S. envoy George Mitchell, who spent the past week shuttling between meetings with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Abbas in Ramallah, began a tour of Middle Eastern countries yesterday to consult with Arab leaders, beginning with stops in Qatar and Egypt, the U.S. State Department said.

The Arab League meeting, which was originally to be held in Cairo on Oct. 4, has been switched to Oct. 8 in Sirte, Libya, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday, citing Ahmed bin Hilli, the Arab League’s deputy secretary general. Abbas has said he will take no final decision on continuing the peace talks until the Arab League has discussed the issue.

Palestinian leaders will now begin to study alternatives, should talks collapse, and step up efforts to reconcile with the Islamic militant Hamas, said Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah member. One frequently mentioned possibility is to ask the U.N. Security Council to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War. [Fox News, Oct 02, 2010]