LOC12:40
09:40 GMT
GAZA, July 13 (KUNA) -- Israeli officials claimed on Wednesday that the
international Quartet refrained from releasing a statement on its conclusions
after Monday's meeting in Washington to relaunch the stalled Mideast process,
due to Palestinian objections.
Palestinians opposed a Quartet request to stop seeking UN Security Council
recognition of their state in September, Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot quoted
the unnamed sources as saying.
Palestinians also refuse to abandon all demands from Israel once a peace
deal is signed, and oppose demands to recognize Israel as the nation state of
the Jewish people as well as to modify their education curricul to cease all
enmity towards Tel Aviv, sources say.
Members of the Quartet, namely US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, EU foreign relations chief Catherine
Ashton, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met Monday evening in Washington
on the stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Prior to the meeting, they agreed to adopt a peace plan that would
encourage Palestinian to abandon their intention to seek UN recognition, but
no statement was released following the conclusion of the session, the
newspaper said.
The Quartet's failure to reach a joint statement caused a major
disappointment to the Palestinians, who demand a halt of Israel's building of
settlements, and a withdrawal to the 1967 borders as a condition for resuming
negotiations.
On Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said his government's plan
had not changed. "We are determined to appeal to the UN in September if the
attempts at renewing negotiations with Israel fail," he told a press
conference in Ramallah.
"We are on the verge of achieving a number of rights regarding the
establishment of an independent Palestinian state and comprehensive peace," he
added. (end)
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