Israel Matzav

Abu Bluff: Talks will fail within a month

'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen has told the PLO Executive Committee to give direct talks with Israel a month, after which he believes they will fail.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked the PLO Executive Committee to allow a one month trial period for direct peace negotiations with Israel before deciding what further action to take, Palestinian sources said, according to a Monday report in the London-based Arab language daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

According to the report, executive committee member Amira Hass said that Abbas believes the talks will fail once Israel's moratorium on building in the West Bank ends on September 26.

Hass added that no vote to approve Palestinian participation in the talks was taken at the Friday meeting of the committee as half of the body's members were not in attendance.

Abbas dispatched a letter to the members of the Mideast Quartet: the US, Russia, EU and the UN on Sunday, stating that the Palestinians will withdraw from the talks with Israel if construction in the settlements continues.

The document was delivered to representatives of the Quartet by chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat.

In the letter, Abbas urged the Quartet members to abide by resolutions of the UN pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict, the principles of the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, the 2002 road map and the 2002/2007 Arab Peace Initiative.

Abbas’s letter is seen in part as an attempt to reassure critics that he hasn’t abandoned his conditions for negotiating directly with Israel.

Hass is an Israeli Jewish reporter who works for Haaretz (of course).

Abu Bluff plans to collapse the talks on or after September 26. Obama needs them to keep going until at least November 2.

What could go wrong?

UPDATE TUESDAY 1:44 PM

Welcome Contentions readers (thanks Rick R).

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:28 PM