Blaming Israel, Palestinians say no talks soon

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat attends a meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo November 26, 2008.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are unlikely to resume in the near future, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday, blaming Israel for the impasse and urging Washington to do the same.

"The gap is still wide and Israel does not give a single sign of meeting its obligations under the road map, halting settlement activities and resuming negotiations where they left off," he told Voice of Palestine radio.

"I do not see any possibility for restarting peace talks in the near future," he said, in an assessment echoed by Israeli government officials.

The U.S.-backed peace "road map" of 2003, which charts a course to Palestinian statehood, commits Israel to halting settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

"If President (Barack) Obama's administration cannot make Israel abide by its commitments, it has to announce that Israel is the party that is obstructing the launching of peace negotiations," Erekat said, referring the road map agreements.

Resisting U.S. pressure to comply, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a complete cessation of construction within settlements, saying the needs of growing settler families must be accommodated.

Israel also accuses Palestinians of failing to meet their road map commitments to curb violence and incitement against Israel, notably by Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, would return to the region on Wednesday to continue his efforts to revive peace talks.

Barak said that Netanyahu would apparently meet Obama in the second week of November, when the Israeli leader is due to address an American Jewish group in Washington.

"We intend to do our best to bring about the opening of significant negotiations with the Palestinians as soon as possible. This is important, necessary and, I would say, urgent," Barak told legislators from his Labour Party.

LAND FOR PEACE

Netanyahu has rejected Palestinian demands to abide by what they said were land-for-peace understandings reached with his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, in a year of negotiations that followed a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in November 2007.

Israeli government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said talks with the Palestinians were unlikely in the coming months.

They expressed doubt Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could show flexibility toward Israel before planned Palestinian elections in January, opposed by Hamas. Netanyahu has called on Abbas to resume negotiations immediately without preconditions.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Obama a less-than-glowing assessment of peace efforts.

Her report followed separate meetings in Washington between Mitchell and Israeli and Palestinian negotiators aimed at restarting direct talks suspended since December.

Few analysts believe there is a high risk of Palestinian frustration turning into a new uprising of the kind seen in the years of Intifada from 2000. However, clashes between youths and Israeli police around Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, most recently on Sunday, have aroused concerns about instability.

(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)