Fatah leader: Contacts underway to resume peace process
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2014.
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHABBAS CONFERS with senior Fatah official Mahmoud Aloul (right) during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of late PLO leader Yasser Arafat, in Ramallah on November 11, 2018.(photo credit: REUTERS)
Several parties are trying to resume contacts between the Palestinian Authority and Israel and the US administration, Mahmoud Aloul, deputy chairman of the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction, said on Wednesday.Aloul did not name the parties that are reportedly seeking to resume contacts between the Palestinians and the Israelis and Americans. “There are many parties that are in touch with us and the Americans and Israelis in order to find solutions,” he said without elaborating.Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2014.The PA leadership has been boycotting the US administration since December 2017, when US President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.A PA official told The Jerusalem Post that some Arab states, including Egypt and Jordan, have been trying to convince the Palestinian leadership to resume its contacts with the US administration and Israel. The official said that some European states had also “advised” the Palestinians to end their boycott of Israel and the Trump administration.The PA leadership previously expressed readiness to resume peace talks with Israel, but only within the framework of an international peace conference that would deny the US the chance to act as a sole and major broker.Aloul said that the PA leadership is prepared to sit with all relevant parties, “but only on the basis of international resolutions and legitimacy.”The Palestinians, he added, remain vehemently opposed to Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity” vision for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In addition, the Palestinians consider Israel’s plan to apply its sovereignty to portions of the West Bank.Aloul claimed that Palestinian activists have managed to remove six settler outposts in the West Bank during the past two months. The activists, he said, are members of the “Popular Committees” set up to organize protests against settlement construction and Israel’s annexation plan. Aloul did not name the outposts that were allegedly removed by the activists.
