Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Monday again ruled out any resumption of Middle East peace talks if Israel continues to reject a solution based on the creation of a Palestinian state. "What is there to negotiate if they continue to refuse to accept a two-state solution," Abbas told journalists in Ramallah.
He also urged Israel to "respect its commitments under the first stage of the roadmap which requires a settlement freeze, including natural growth, the dismantling of wildcat outposts and the reopening of Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem." The 2003 roadmap is an internationally-drafted blueprint which calls for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.
Abbas said the Palestinian Authority had fulfilled its commitments under the roadmap. "We were required to restore order and stability, and this now has been done," he said. In November 2007, Abbas and then Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert relaunched peace talks under US auspices after a near seven-year hiatus.
But the right-wing Israeli government of current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state and a freeze of settlement activity. Abbas and Netanyahu have not met since the Israeli premier was sworn in on March 31.
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