Palestinian Authority may dissolve itself if talks fail

The Palestinian Authority may dissolve itself if the stalled peace talks with Israel fail, a senior official told AFP on Sunday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the Palestinian leadership has informed the US envoy to the peace process, Martin Indyk, that it “has several options” if the talks collapse.

According to the official the Palestinian leadership told Indyk that the options include “dismantling the Palestinian Authority and handing the keys of the PA to the UN so it will be in charge of the Palestinian people and the state of Palestine, which is under occupation, or that the Israeli occupation reassumes full responsibility for everything.”

This is not the first time that the Palestinians have threatened to dissolve the PA, which was created under the Oslo Accords in 1993 to manage the autonomous regions in the occupied Palestinian territories. However, this is the first time that they have made the threat since the peace talks with Israel resumed under the auspices of US Secretary of State John Kerry last July; the talks are believed to be on the verge of collapse.

“US envoy Martin Indyk met with the Palestinian negotiating team on Friday but did not carry any new ideas to save the negotiations,” said the unnamed official. “Indyk goes to great lengths with the American administration in order to push the negotiations forward [but he] continues to clash with Israeli intransigence, which refuses to allow the negotiations to progress.”

It is claimed that Indyk has told the Palestinian delegation that Israel does not want to release the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners before agreeing to extend the negotiations.