The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that the position on the peace process outlined by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an influential US lobby group is "ambiguous."
"The statements by the Israeli prime minister to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee are ambiguous and insufficient," Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
Netanyahu called Monday for a "fresh" triple-track approach to peace with the Palestinians that includes an immediate resumption of talks without conditions.
But in his address to AIPAC by satellite link from Jerusalem, Netanyahu did not mention the goal of a two-state solution embraced by the new US administration of President Barack Obama.
Reacting to the speech, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Palestinian Authority would insist the talks on key issues resume "from the point that had been reached" with the former government of prime minister Ehud Olmert before Netanyahu's cabinet took over on March 31.
"Netanyahu is only playing with words before the US administration. It is from Washington that we demand a clear response, because the Israeli government won't answer clearly," he said.
The Islamist Hamas movement that controls Gaza has accused Netanyahu "of seeking to deceive public opinion and hide the crimes committed by the occupation in Gaza" during the devastating turn-of-the-year offensive that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians.
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