Abbas to send Netanyahu letter on peace talks

ISRAEL: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will send a letter to Israel's premier on the state of stalled peace talks on April 17, a Palestinian official told AFP on Sunday. The letter is expected to lay out Palestinian conditions for returning to direct negotiations that have been on hold since late September 2010.

The Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the letter would be handed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by a delegation of senior Palestinians.

“It was agreed that a Palestinian delegation, including Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation Yasser Abed Rabbo and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, will meet with Netanyahu on the 17th of this month,” the official said.Israeli officials had no comment on the reported meeting date.

Abbas has said for several weeks he was in the process of penning a letter to Netanyahu, which is expected to lay out Palestinian conditions for resuming negotiations, including a halt to Israeli settlement construction and clear parameters for discussions of future borders.Abbas has indicated that he will accuse Netanyahu of rendering the Palestinian Authority government “a non-authority”, but is expected to stop short of threatening to disband the PA as reports had earlier suggested he would.

Netanyahu's office has said that he will respond with his own letter to Abbas, which is likely to call for a resumption of direct negotiations without preconditions.

Last week, Erakat and Netanyahu's envoy Yitzhak Molcho held talks believed to have focused on the contents of Abbas's letter.

They were the first publicly acknowledged discussions since five rounds of so-called exploratory talks between envoys from both sides were held earlier this year.

AFP