Erekat:Palestinians to consider Quartet's proposal for resumption of peace talks

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday that the Palestinian leadership will consider on Wednesday the Middle East peace Quartet''s proposal for resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks within a month. "Members of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Central Committee of Fatah movement will hold a series of meetings to thoroughly study the proposal before announcing the official stance," Erekat said, reported the Kuwaiti nwes agency KUNA. Erekat, a member of the Central Committee of Fatah movement, dismissed Israeli claims that the Quartet proposal calls for unconditional resumption of the stalled peace talks. "Article No. 5 of the proposal states that the Palestinian and Israeli sides have to respect their respective commitments as per the Roadmap peace plan put forward by the Quartet several years ago," he said. "The plan obliges Israel to stop all settlements activities in the occupied Palestinian territories and remove all Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank and East Jerusalem'''', he added. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday expressed readiness to accept the Quartet plan for "unconditional" restart of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority to reach an agreement before the end of the year 2012. On the other hand, Erekat rebuffed Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz''s threat to impose economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority in the event of refusal to recognize Israel as a state for Jewish people. "Since this government came to power, it behaves as if there is no Palestinian Authority at all," he noted. Erekat also refused to speculate on the nature of relations with Israel in the future following the Palestinian request for full UN membership, a move strongly opposed by Israel. "Now we are preoccupied with the course of the vote on the bid in the UN Security Council," he said, revealing that the UNSC will hold its meeting soon to probe the Palestinian request. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has presented the request to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last Friday in New York . "We closely monitor the developments of the issue," Erekat said, adding that every Palestinian step in regard has been thoroughly studied. The Palestinian official also condemned Israeli settlers'' growing attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. "What is taking place is really a state terror and the Israeli government is fully responsible for these violent acts of the settlers''''