JERUSALEM – A top Palestinian official is questioning the U.S. ability to forge Middle East peace after a new breakdown in attempts to revive negotiations.
Yasser Abed Rabbo said Wednesday that if the U.S. was unable to persuade Israel to temporarily freeze Jewish settlement in the West Bank, he wondered how it could broker a permanent peace deal.
"This is the big question now," Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine radio station.
For weeks, the U.S. has been negotiating the terms of a settlement freeze with Israel in order to bring the Palestinians back to peace talks. But late Tuesday, U.S. officials said the Obama administration had abandoned the effort.
The Palestinians say they won't resume talks unless Israel halts settlement construction on captured territories they claim for a future state.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israelis and Palestinians are blaming each other for the lack of progress in peace talks after the Obama administration abandoned efforts to persuade Israel to slow West Bank settlement activity.
The American announcement dealt a blow to the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and puts the stated American goal of reaching a deal within a year in major doubt.
Israel Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser said Wednesday that the problem was not on the "Israeli side of the court" but rather in preconditions posed by the Palestinians.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary general of the PLO, blames the American "failure" on Israeli obstacles and conditions.
The U.S. says it is not giving up efforts to broker a peace deal.
