Erekat: The door to peace talks with Israel is not closed

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the door to peace talks with Israel is not closed.

Erekat told Saudi Arabia’s Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper that contact with the Americans is continuing in order to revive peace talks and denied claims that Palestinians were holding secret talks with Israel.

He said he held Israel responsible for obstructing the peace negotiations which ended on April 29 without achieving any significant results when Israel decided to suspend talks following the signing of a Palestinian reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah.

Erekat said: “Israel is responsible for disrupting the negotiations and undermining US Secretary of State, John Kerry’s efforts because it chose settlements over peace and stopped the peace process a week before their due date because of the reconciliation agreement which we, as Palestinians, cannot talk about the two-state solution or establish a Palestinian state without.”

Commenting on the US renewed efforts to revive the peace process saying: “Israel knows that the key to reviving the peace process lies in agreeing on a complete cessation of settlement and accepting to negotiate the future two-state map based on the 1967 borders, and releasing the fourth group of veteran prisoners. This is what we asked for and continue to ask for until now.”

Erekat’s remarks comes at a time when US State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said senior US officials will travel to the region soon in an attempt to revive peace talks that collapsed last month.

Quds Net news agency reported a Palestinian “informed official” yesterday as saying that “although the Palestinian and Israeli sides have officially announced the failure of the negotiations secret contact is ongoing between the two sides”.

The official is reported to have said: “There is a communication channel between senior Palestinian Authority officials and senior Israeli officials to search for a way out of the current crisis after the talks deadline passed.”

The confidential communications take place with direct consent from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and under US supervision, the official said.