RAMALLAH, - Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday softened his refusal to resume negotiations with Israel without complete settlement freeze and called on Israel to halt settlement activities for a certain period before reviving talks between the two sides.
"We will not accept the relaunching of negotiations without a complete halt to settlements, including in Jerusalem, for a fixed period," Abbas told reporters in his headquarters in Ramallah.
It was the first time Abbas appeared to accept temporary settlement freeze, after months in which he insisted on a total halt to settlement growth.
For its part, the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper reported that last week a meeting was held between foreign ministers of France, Spain, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to discuss the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, but the political process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) dominated the session.
The newspaper said that the Arab foreign ministers tabled during the meeting the PA approval to resume negotiations with Israel without demanding it to freeze settlement if premier Benjamin Netanyahu accepted five other easier conditions.
These conditions, according to the newspaper, include the cessation of assassinations and military operations in the West Bank and the alleviation of the blockade on the Gaza Strip.
It also quoted informed Israeli sources as saying that the Arab and European foreign ministers agreed that the difficulty in renewing negotiations now stems from the reluctance of Abbas and Netanyahu to state their new positions towards this matter publicly. PIC
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