Officials: Fayyad backs out of meeting with Netanyahu
Published 17 April 2012 17:51
By Noah Browning
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=477365

RAMALLAH (Reuters) -- A planned meeting Tuesday between the Israeli and
Palestinian Authority prime ministers may be canceled or postponed after
Salam Fayyad refused to attend, senior Palestinian officials said.

Fayyad was reluctant to be seen as engaging with Israel on a day when more
than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners began a hunger strike to protest against
their conditions in Israeli jails, the officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office had released no details
of a time or venue for what were to have been the highest-level talks with
the Palestinians since peace negotiations broke off in 2010.

But Israeli officials, asking for anonymity because no official announcement
on the talks had been made, had said Monday that the meeting was to be held
on Tuesday.

Palestinian officials said Fayyad was to have delivered a letter to
Netanyahu from President Mahmoud Abbas detailing grievances on the stalled
peace talks and reiterating a call to halt settlement building.

Instead, the letter may be handed to a senior Netanyahu aide by PLO chief
negotiator Saeb Erekat later Tuesday or Fayyad might meet the Israeli leader
on a less politically charged date, the officials said.

Earlier, an Israeli official said Netanyahu would reiterate his call for
talks to resume without any preconditions and for a meeting with Abbas.

Divisions

The possible last-minute cancellation may cast new light on divisions within
the Palestinian political establishment, which has struggled to craft a
winning strategy to achieve statehood.

The letter could serve as a prelude to a renewed unilateral Palestinian move
for statehood recognition in the United Nations, an effort suspended last
autumn amid stiff opposition from Washington and Israel.

Palestinians said the letter would accuse Israel of failing to carry out its
obligations under a 2003 "road map" agreed by both sides, which include a
halt to settlement activity.

Foreign governments have viewed the letter with apprehension, welcoming a
rare high-level Israeli-Palestinian meeting, and warning against any
threatening language.

US-sponsored peace talks froze in late 2010 after Netanyahu rejected
Palestinian demands that he extend a partial construction freeze he had
imposed at Washington's behest to coax them into talks.

Netanyahu says the future of settlements, which the Palestinians and many
countries regard as illegal, should be decided in peace negotiations.

Palestinian officials said the letter is a watered-down version of previous
drafts which suggested the Palestinian Authority, run by Abbas, would
dissolve itself or sever ties with Israel if there was no progress.

Nonetheless, the Palestinians may take their case to the UN General Assembly
after failing to secure backing at the Security Council in 2011, and even
though only the Security Council - where the United States has veto power -
has the authority to grant full UN membership.