PA has right to quit talks: AL

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has the right to quit talks with Israel, should Tel Aviv restart building in occupied Palestinian territories, the Arab League (AL)chief says.

Repeating his earlier assertions, the organization’s Secretary General Amr Moussa said on Tuesday that it would be a “waste of time” to remain at the negotiation table at the same time that Israel has resumed constructing illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, dpa reported.

US pressure resulted in the renewal of direct talks between Israel and the PA in early September. The negotiations had broken off at the turn of 2009, when Tel Aviv launched a war on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians.

Israel has already dealt a severe blow to the process by declining to renew a partial freeze it had imposed in November 2009 on its settlement activities.

On Sunday, when the so-called moratorium ended, the construction of two thousand illegal houses was launched across the occupied West Bank. Extremist settlers also marked the expiration date with the honking of horns and the release of thousands of balloons.

Moussa added that continuing with the talks in the face of renewed settlement activities would also be a “waste of Arab interests.”

The AL, he said, would support the acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas’ position that Israel “must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements.”