BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- The PLO is under intense international pressure to extend a Jan. 26 deadline set by the Quartet for the exchange of proposals by Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators, a PLO executive committee member said Thursday.
In October, the Quartet of international peace mediators -- the US, Russia, the EU and the UN -- set the Jan. 26 deadline for both sides to state their positions on the borders and security arrangements of a future two-state solution.
PLO envoys fulfilled the Quartet's request and submitted proposals on Jan. 3 during a meeting with Israeli officials in Amman.
Israeli and PLO negotiators have met three times in the Jordanian capital in January but Israel has yet to offer its positions on borders or security. The envoys are due to hold a fourth meeting on Jan. 25.
PLO official Wasel Abu Yousef told Ma'an the Palestinian negotiators would insist the deadline was met despite "huge pressure" from the Quartet and other countries to hold further talks after Jan. 26.
Abu Yousef said Israel was applying pressure through the Quartet to stall the peace process so it could build more illegal settlements and annex more Palestinian land.
The settler population in the West Bank has more than tripled during the last two decades of negotiations.
An internal European Union report, leaked to reporters in January, warned that the chances of creating a workable Palestinian state alongside Israel were being eroded by constant Jewish settlement building and restrictions on Palestinian economic activity and demographic growth.
"The window for the two-state solution is rapidly closing," said the report, put together by EU missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Abu Yousef called on the PLO to abandon talks with Israel until it stops building illegal Jewish-only settlements on land which would be a Palestinian state in a two-state solution.
Arab foreign ministers will meet on Jan. 29 to discuss developments in Palestine and the outcome of talks with Israel, he added.
Meanwhile, an Egyptian delegation will arrive in Palestine next week to follow up on reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, which Egypt played a key role in brokering, he said.
Front Page Features