Palestinian official blames Israel for harming Kerry's efforts over peace talks

A Palestinian official on Thursday blamed Israel for "destroying" U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry' s efforts to revive peace talks by continuing construction of settlement. On Wednesday, Israel's local media reported that the government decided to build more than 1,000 housing units in settlements in East Jerusalem. "We have alerted the world that the Israeli government is not interested in peace and it is a government of settlers," Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, told Xinhua. "In addition to continuing the construction of illegal settlements, the settler groups also escalate their attacks against the Palestinian people and their priorities" in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Erekat said. For his part, Riad Al-Maliki, Palestinian minister of foreign affairs, said that Kerry failed in making any breakthrough in his mission, blaming Israel for not being flexible. According to the settlement watchdog Terrestrial Jerusalem, said that contracts to build 300 homes in Ramot settlement in northeast Jerusalem were already signed. The reports about the new building plans surfaced a few days after Kerry ended his fourth visit to the region, where he met Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a bid to revive the negotiations. Kerry has been exerting efforts since U.S. President Barrack Obama's visit to the region on March 20, to resume the direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The negotiations between both sides came to a full halt in 2010 over expansion of Israeli settlement construction.