Mahmoud Abbas: Palestinian negotiators resign from talks

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinian negotiators have resigned over the lack of progress in Israeli-Palestinian conflict talks.

Abbas said in an interview on Egypt’s CBC television that his negotiators were upset over continued plans for Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. But he said negotiations could still continue with a new delegation.

“Either we can convince [the current negotiators] to return, and we’re trying with them, or we form a new delegation,” Abbas said.

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While chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations stopped “in light of the settlement announcements last week,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently canceled plans for the construction of 1,200 housing units in the E1 corridor that links Jerusalem with the Jewish community of Ma’ale Adumim. 

“Israel has once more demonstrated concretely, even at domestic political cost, its steadfast commitment to the process,” American Jewish Committee Executive Director David Harris said of Netanyahu’s construction cancelation. “We await similar steps from the Palestinian side.”