RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi says the decision to move to face-to-face negotiations without a settlement halt and without pinpointing a prerequisite framework “will lead to greater and more serious failure” than the 2000 negotiations at Camp David between Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak hosted by US president Bill Clinton.
De facto Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas had previously stuck to three conditions for picking up talks, but gave in after he received heavy pressure from western negotiators, a decision which was subjected to harsh criticism.
The US Secretary of State has announced that talks between Israel and the Palestinians will start Sept. 2 in Washington.
Barghouthi said in a news briefing Saturday that the invitation by the international negotiation Quartet - the US, the UN, the EU, and Russia - to resume direct talks between Tel Aviv and Ramallah has left the framework for talks a complete mystery and has not ensured an end to settlement activity before talks.
“Talk about negotiations without preconditions, and without compliance with international law means accepting Israel’s condition without specifying clear mechanisms for negotiation,” he said.
The Palestinian Legislative Council noted that Israel’s PM Netanyahu, who refuses to stop settlement activity in Jerusalem and other occupied territories, “will seek to use negotiations as a cover-up for the extended settlement policies, noting that an unclear framework for negotiations will make it easy for Netanyahu to play with negotiations and buy time.
The Jordanian democratic popular unity party called on the Palestinian Authority to recant its decision for direct talks and to join forces with the Palestinian resistance to create a new national strategy to tackle the dangers surrounding Palestine.
The party argued that negotiations came after the PA backed down on the preconditions it set to determine a framework before going into direct talks, after indirect negotiations, and after seventeen years of meaningless talks.
Resuming direct conditions in light of the continued Palestinian division and the imbalance in forces is in Israel’s favor, the party continued, adding that the Palestinians will not be able to offer anything against the enemy’s requests for more concessions.
According to high-level Israeli political sources, the decision to extend the settlement freeze in the West Bank will not be a matter for discussion.
Hebrew radio said that Israel’s unwillingness to suspend settlement activity was in response to a PLO official who announced his consent to resume direct talks provided settlement activity is shut down in the West Bank.
The Israeli “Haaretz” newspaper has called Fatah accepting talks without preconditions a “political victory” for Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu.
After a year and a half political deadlock, Netanyahu can mark his first political achievement, albeit modest, the newspaper wrote.
The great achievement of Netanyahu in recent months is that he succeeded in changing the course of American pressure. After more than a year of pressuring Israel, US President Barack Obama began actively applying pressure on PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to enter into direct talks, the paper explained.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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