Sunday, April 15, 2012

Peace process: Abbas issues "final warning" to Israel, threatens with one-state solution

(JPost) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's long-anticipated letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will include a warning that the two-state solution could collapse unless Israel changes its current policies.

PA negotiator and member of the Fatah Central Committee, Mohammed Shtayyeh, said that the letter, which will be handed to Netanyahu by PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday, includes three central issues and serves as a final warning to Israel.

First, the letter will note that Israel has not implemented agreements signed with the PLO. Second, the letter will warn that if the two-state solution dies, the two sides will be headed toward a one-state solution. Third, Abbas's letter will detail the PA's position regarding various issues, such as Jerusalem, borders, settlements and refugees.

Shtayyeh said that the letter will make it clear that the PA leadership would not be able to "continue with the game called negotiations" while construction is continuing in the settlements.

"Israel must choose between negotiations and settlements," he told the Qatari newspaper Al-Sharq. "Israel's measures on the ground show that it is interested only in maintaining the status quo."

Shtayyeh condemned moves in Congress to suspend financial aid to the PA as "extortion." The PA, he stressed, would not succumb to extortion.