
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warns that continued expansion of Israeli settlements could force the Palestinian Authority (PA) to abandon the two-state solution.
"Successive Israeli governments have destroyed any chance of reaching a two-state solution," said Erekat on Wednesday, noting that PA must start searching for 'other options'.
"A Palestinian state without Jerusalem (Al-Quds) as its capital would be meaningless. The Palestinian people haven't excluded other options, including the option of a one-state solution," he told reporters in Ramallah.
He said it was time for acting PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to 'tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement activities, the two-state solution is no longer an option'.
Israel has long refused to halt its construction activity on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, while the Palestinians insist on a freeze on the expansion of Israeli settlements as a precondition to any peace negotiations with the Israeli side.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that talks should be resumed without a settlement freeze, and that 'everything, from borders to Jerusalem to refugees, has to be resolved between the parties' once negotiations have resumed.
This is while the Palestinians insist should the talks resume, they should continue where they broke down under former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.
"We are talking about resuming final status negotiations," >>>


