The Palestinian leadership on Saturday urged president Mahmud Abbas to quit US-backed peace talks over Israeli settlement construction, his spokesman said. "Our position has not changed. We will not hold negotiations while settlement activity continues," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP after a special meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and top officials from Abbas's Fatah movement.
He added, however, that the Palestinians would continue consultations with US mediators and would present the results of those talks to an Arab League meeting on Friday in the Libyan city of Sirte. Abbas had said he would make his final decision on whether to pull out of the talks, which were launched in Washington one month ago today, after he consults with the Arab foreign ministers.
The PLO, a Fatah-dominated umbrella group headed by Abbas that includes most Palestinian factions but not the militant Hamas, is the Palestinians' sole international representative. Fatah, meanwhile, appeared to have adopted an even harder line on the negotiations, with one member of the movement's central committee suggesting the international community reconsider Israel's existence.
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