Abbas meets European consuls in West Bank

Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday met consuls of Britain, France and Germany in the West Bank and discussed efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Nabil Abu Rdineh, spokesman for Abbas, said that the participants discussed the upcoming meeting of the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators, which comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, in the middle of April.

They also talked about "the necessity to issue a statement from the Quartet contributing to creating a positive atmosphere on the level of peace process," Abu Rdineh said.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians were halted in September due to a dispute on the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Earlier, a Palestinian official said that the Palestinians would return to the negotiation table if the Quartet adopted a European statement about the need to reach an agreement to secure the establishment of the Palestinian state.

The statement was drafted by Britain, France and Germany and read by the British envoy to the UN during a UN Security Council's session in February.

The statement envisions a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with equal land swap and security arrangements maintaining the sovereignty of the Palestinian state. The statement also called for a solution to share Jerusalem as the capital of the two states.

Source: Xinhua

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