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19:43 GMT
CAIRO, Nov 20 (KUNA) -- Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said he agreed with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to call Arab peace initiative committee for an urgent foreign miniaters' meeting once they receive the US position over the peace process, to discuss future steps vis-a-vis the peace talks with Israel.
"The continuation of settlement will lead to developments not in favor of the Palestinian state," Moussa told a joint news conference with head of PLO's negotiations department Dr. Saeb Erekat after a meeting with Abbas Saturday.
"We are strongly against it (settlement) and it should stop to have a successful negotiations, and as we have said before the options are on the table and the measures will be taken at the right moment," said Moussa without elaborating on nature of these measures.
Moussa said Abbas briefed him about the available information about the "so-called Israeli-American deal." He said they have agreed on future steps once full information were available about the deal "which greatly annoyed us as such a deal might cause great disturbance in the region." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated yesterday he was awaiting a "document" from the United States regarding "tentative understandings" he had reached with it on conditions for resuming peace talks with the Palestinians.
He said his contacts with the US were proceeding for reaching "understandings to activate the peace process and safeguard the vital interests of Israel namely its security." He added that "such understandings do not include Jerusalem," and that Washington would grant Israel, in return for the moratorium of settlement activities, a package of "security and political assurances." Moussa, meanwhile, said they have discussed settlement "which is not a right for Israel because it is irrelevant to international legitimacy nor law." Settlement, asserted Moussa, has breached all rules of occupation, war and peace.
"Settlement means there will not be a Palestinian state and the continuation of settlement affirms that the Israeli government is not serious in supporting the peace process nor fruitful negotiations. So settlement should stop including in East Jerusalem ... ," he added.
Direct peace talks resumed on September 2 but collapsed three weeks later with the expiry of a 10-month Israeli ban on West Bank settlement building. Palestinian President Abbas has since refused to rejoin the talks until a new moratorium is imposed.
For his part, Erekat said the Palestinians have not received anything official from Washington yet about the deal with Israel.
Once the Americans send their position over the deal to the Palestinians, he explained, the Arab peace initiative committee would be called for a meeting at the foreign ministers' level.
"What halted negotiations was an Israeli decision by continuing settlement, therefore the Israeli government is responsible for the cessation of negotiations, and when it decides to stop settlement including in Al-Quds (Jerusalem) direct talks will resume," he said.
Erekat, reacting about US selling sophisticated weapons to Israel, said there was no link with the settlement issue.
The settlements are violating international law and they are not rewarded, he said, and "everybody knows there is a strategic American-Israeli agreement since 1973 by which Israel have more supremacy over all Arabs in quantity and quality ... ." On the other hand, Abbas met with Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and discussed the Israeli actions in occupied Palestinian territories.
Abbas will meet President Hosni Mubarak tomorrow to discuss situation in Palestine in general and the Egyptian-brokered conciliation between Palestinian factions. (pickup previous) bna.bs KUNA 202243 Nov 10NNNN