The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Sunday announced that it had not yet received a US proposal for a three-month freeze on the construction of Israeli settlements on occupied Arab land in return for resuming stalled Israel-PA peace talks.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that, in any event, the Palestinian side would reject such a proposal.
“The proposed freeze doesn’t include settlement-building in occupied East Jerusalem,” he said. “Therefore, we reject it categorically.”
However, PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the authority would refrain from stating its position on the issue before officially receiving clarification from Washington "as to what's going on.”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry, for its part, said it had not been informed about the US proposal.
On Sunday, the Israeli government reportedly discussed a US-proposed settlement freeze in return for certain "security guarantees" from the US.
The guarantees are said to include a promise from Washington to veto all resolutions against the self-proclaimed Jewish state at the UN Security Council and at other international organizations, as well as providing Israel with 20 US fighter planes worth a total of US$3 billion.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
