The head of the Palestinian negotiation team, Ahmed Qurei, on Thursday said peace talks with Israel have reached an impasse.
"The talks are no longer making anything; they are a waste of time and they hit a deadlock due to the rigid Israeli mentality," said Qurei, who headed the negotiation team since the resumption of the peace talks in November 2007.
The new Israeli rightist government ruled out the continuation of the peace negotiations with the Palestinians while the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas decided not to meet Premier Benjamin Netanyahu unless his government recognizes previous peace deals, freezes West Bank settlement activities and declares its commitment to the two-state solution.
"The Palestinian leadership negotiated with eight Israeli governments and every cabinet imposed new conditions and program so the talks always started from zero," Qurei recalled.
Meanwhile, Qurei said that his Fatah movement may resort to resistance since the peaceful negotiations achieved nothing. "The choice of resistance is still available for us with all its forms that the international laws guaranteed because the negotiations are only a way, not a goal."
He stressed the necessity of international intervention and pressure on Israel to clarify and define the basis of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the visions of reaching an agreement.
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