Mahmoud Abbas says no framework for ‘peace’ talks

Mahmoud Abbas says efforts made by the United States to secure a framework for negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel have failed so far.

“So far the Americans have not been able to put these ideas into a framework even if the efforts are extremely serious,” the acting Palestinian Authority chief told reporters in Paris after a meeting with French President Francois Hollande.

Abbas also discussed the issue of the so-called peace talks during his two separate meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry in the French capital.

A Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Kerry offered some ideas to Abbas in Paris, but Palestinians did not accept the proposals “as the basis for a framework accord… as they do not take into account the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian and Israeli negotiators began a fresh round of talks in July 2013. Previous negotiations between the two sides broke down in September 2010 after Tel Aviv refused to freeze its illegal settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.

The US secretary of state has given the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli regime nine months to complete their talks. The deadline will expire in April.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds and the besieged Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian lands.

Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds. Israel also continues settlement construction in East al-Quds and the West Bank.