PLO blames Israel for failure of Amman talks

The Palestinian leadership held Israel fully responsible for the failure of the meetings and talks that took place in the Jordanian capital. According to Palestinian representatives, Israel keeps building illegal settlements and rejecting the two-state solution, and makes the talks impossible. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) issued a statement following a meeting at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, chaired by PA president Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, in which they say they will continue the meeting, particularly after consulting with Arab countries, through Arab follow-up committees which are scheduled to convene in the first week of February. "In light of the results of the Amman meetings, the PLO executive committee considers the Israeli government and it alone to be entirely responsible for their failure. These meetings revealed Israel's insistence to continue settlement activities and its refusal of a two-state solution on the basis of 1967 borders,” the statement said. "The position of the Palestinian leadership remains unchanged: peace negotiations must be based on the 1967 lines; Israel has to stop the settlements and has to release Palestinian prisoners,” it added. The statement also stressed that PLO will “intensify efforts” to make sure the national reconciliation succeeds, and to hold elections before midyear, calling on all parties to cooperate and remove all obstacles that may impede the achievement of the reconciliation. "The Palestinian leadership will, in the next few days, finish to study a series of political and practical options in order to continue the international campaign," added the statement, in an apparent reference to the Palestinian quest for full UN membership, which Israel opposes. The Palestinian leadership highlighted the need to continue with the peaceful popular resistance against the crimes of the occupation and the Israeli violations of human rights. Israel and the Palestinians have held five rounds of "exploratory talks", which are aimed at helping the parties chart a route back to direct negotiations, which have been on ice since September 2010. After the fifth round of talks, held in Amman and sponsored by Jordan and the peacemaking Quartet, the Palestinians said Israel had "moved not one step to enable a resumption of negotiations." The Quartet called on October 26 for both sides to present comprehensive proposals on territory and security within three months, which the Palestinians say they have done, accusing Israel of failing to do the same. Israel says it has laid out some of the principles on which its policy on territory and security is based, but that it considers the three-month period to have started with the first round of talks on January 3. On Sunday both sides accused each other of undermining the talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Palestinians were stalling and refusing to discuss the Jewish state's security concerns and a Palestinian official said the Israelis had laid out a vision for "impossible" borders. UN chief Ban Ki-moon starts a Middle East peace mission on Tuesday, seeking to add pressure on the two sides to return to direct talks.