The Paleostinian leadership on Saturday said there would be no peace talks with Israel as long as it continued settlement construction, a front man said."Our position has not changed. We will not hold negotiations while settlement activity continues," president Mahmud Abbas's front man, Nabil Abu Rudeina, told AFP after a special meeting of the Paleostine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and brass hats from Abbas's Fatah movement.
The PLO, which is headed by Abbas and includes most Paleostinian factions but not the militant Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement, was to meet in Ramallah at 1000 GMT with other bigshots from Abbas's Fatah movement, which dominates the group.
They plan to formulate a Paleostinian position on the negotiations ahead of an Arab League meeting in Libya later this week at which Abbas plans to announce his final decision on the talks.
The Paleostinian leader had frequently threatened to walk out of the direct negotiations launched exactly one month ago if Israel allowed a 10-month moratorium on new West Bank settler homes to expire on September 26.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allowed the restrictions to end despite U.S. pressure, but has said he will restrain settlement construction and repeatedly urged the Paleostinians to continue the talks.