RAMALLAH, Dec 8 (JMCC) - Palestinian president
Mahmoud Abbas said during a visit to Greece that there is no doubt that there is a crisis in the current peace talks with
Israel, adding he hopes the European Union will help relaunch the negotiations.
Abbas also said he hoped the European Union would get involved in relaunching the negotiations. We hope that the time will soon come when the EU will play a role alongside the United States.
The comments came after the White House and the state department admitted that they had failed to get Israel to renew a moratorium on Israeli building in the occupied territories.
Without a new freeze, the Palestinians have refused to negotiate, effectively deadlocking direct peace talks that opened on September 2 only to run aground just weeks later when building resumed in the settlements.
Abbas' statement comes after the US stopped lobbying Israel to freeze
settlement construction and, according to US State Department spokesman
Philip Crowley, change tactics towards proximity talks in lieu of
direct talks.
Palestinian Authority legislator Dr. Moustafa Barghouthi said the current peace talks don't make sense, in absence of a settlement freeze: Its like having an engagement party after the wedding.
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