(BIBIREPORT).Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that the Palestinian Authority cannot negotiate with Israel unless it halts all settlement expansion.
Abbas added that the US and the European Union were making considerable efforts to have to resume the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
In an interview published Sunday with the Egyptian weekly October, the PA president insisted that a halt to construction in West Bank settlements was not a Palestinian condition, but rather a condition set by US President Barack Obama.
Earlier Today Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to meet with him as soon as possible in order to renew peace talks.
"Let's make peace - both diplomatic peace and economic peace," Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting in Beersheba that was held there as an act of solidarity with the Negev capital. "There is no reason why we can't meet, the Palestinian Authority president and I, anywhere in Israel, and since we are in Beersheba, I say, let's meet here.
"The Palestinian population living alongside us has a basic right to live in peace, security and prosperity," he stressed. "In recent weeks, we have made great efforts to ease their lives. We've removed many roadblocks, we have decided to increase the operating hours of the Allenby Bridge for more goods, and I've decided to advance a series of projects with the Palestinians to promote peace. But all these efforts can only bring us to a certain point, and the results will be multiplied by the dozen if there is cooperation from the other side."
Reaching out to Arab countries, as well as to Palestinian leaders, he said, "Let's meet, let's cooperate… We have the ability to bring many players on board."
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