The Palestinians want US efforts to salvage the peace process to continue, a senior official said on Wednesday, just hours after they renewed controversial moves to seek international recognition."We hope (US Secretary of State John) Kerry's efforts will be renewed in the coming days," Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee, told reporters in Ramallah. "Kerry knows the reality. We don't want these efforts to finish."
| Honest, we'll hold the football in place this time, Charlie Brown." |
The announcement was a blow to Kerry's Abed Rabbo said the Palestinian move was "a response to Israel's flagrant violation of the agreement" under which it would release prisoners if the Palestinians refrained from seeking further UN recognition.
But Israel says its release of each batch of prisoners was conditional on progress in negotiations, which is not currently evident.
"The government of Israel did not release the prisoners, without any reason or even any excuse for not doing so," Abed Rabbo said.
| They did, you just didn't want to listen... |
"The Palestinian leadership respects its commitments and wants the political process to continue, but we want a real political process, without tricks," he said. "We will continue our efforts with the US administration, and will do everything we can to remove all obstacles."
| Except make any concessions of any kind... |