Arab League peace process review postponed: Palestinians
AFP
RAMALLAH- An Arab League meeting to review stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks is likely to be delayed until the end of November, senior Palestinian officials said on Friday.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas had gone to the League for support in halting talks after Israel refused to extend a 10-month partial freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
But Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said on Friday that the committee was now likely to push back its next meeting.
"The Arab follow-up committee will meet after the end of the one-month period and, above all, after the American side has informed us what it reached with Israel," he told AFP.
"We are waiting for this response, which we are expecting shortly, before the 10th of the month."
Abu Rudeina, who is travelling with Abbas on a visit to the United Arab Emirates, said the meeting was now likely to take place after the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha, which is expected to start November 16.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Abbas, told AFP that the meeting "would definitely take place before the end of the month" of November.
The White House launched the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian talks on September 2 in Washington, but they quickly ran into difficulties over Israeli settlement construction.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels to the United States next week where he is due to meet US Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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