Palestinians seek halt to colonies before talks

Ramallah, West Bank: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement have signalled a tough line on talks with Israel, casting new doubts on US efforts to revive long-stalled peace negotiations.

US secretary of state John Kerry is returning to the region next week, his fifth attempt this year to bridge wide gaps between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the ground rules for talks.

Abbas has said he won’t negotiate unless Israel stops building in colonies on occupied lands or accepts its 1967 borders — before the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in a Mideast war — as a starting point for border talks. The Palestinians claim all three areas for their future state.

Netanyahu has rejected the Palestinian demands, saying there should be no pre-conditions — though his predecessor conducted talks on the basis of the pre-1967 lines, and the international community views the colonies as illegal or illegitimate.

Abbas briefed Fatah leaders on Wednesday. In a statement after the meeting, Abbas adviser Nabeel Abu Rudeneh said Fatah supports Abbas in his positions and “affirmed its rejection of the pressures on Abbas and the leadership,” an apparent reference to the Kerry mission.

Both Abbas and Netanyahu are waiting for Kerry to present the proposed US terms for renewing talks. It’s not clear what they are and if Kerry will present them during his upcoming visit.

Abu Rudeneh’s statement suggested that Kerry failed to persuade Netanyahu to relent on a colony freeze or accept the pre-1967 frontier as a baseline, saying that Abbas is being pressured to return to talks on Israeli terms. The statement also suggested there was no agreement on the release of veteran Palestinian prisoners by Israel — floated in the past as a possible goodwill gesture to bring Abbas to the table.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor called on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table immediately. “It seems that the Palestinians still insist on reaching the last stage without bothering to go through chapter one, two and the rest,” he said. “There are no shortcuts, and the only way to start negotiating is at the beginning, which means just start negotiating. It’s as simple as that.”

The US State Department said Kerry would be in Amman and occupied Jerusalem from June 27-29 for talks on renewing negotiations.

Earlier on Wednesday, international Mideast envoy Tony Blair said Kerry’s mission may be the last chance for an Israeli-Palestinian deal.

He said that the “window of opportunity will be open for only a short period of time.”

“We must go through it together,” he said in a speech in occupied Jerusalem. “If not, the window will close and could close forever. Time is not our friend. This is urgent. This is now. This is the time for statesmen, not politicians.”

Later on Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Abbas, the latest of several foreign diplomats trying to persuade Abbas to resume negotiations.

Abbas aide Nabeel Shaath said before that meeting that Abbas told visitors, including the foreign ministers of New Zealand and Canada, that they should instead appeal to Israel to change its position.

Palestinian officials have said they nonetheless fear being blamed by the international community for a possible failure of Kerry’s mission. In Wednesday’s meeting, Fatah asked four leading members to devise a plan “to face the Israeli campaign to put the blame on us,” Shaath said.