Parties mediating between Israel, Palestine to revive peace process

Ramallah, Aug 6 (IANS): Some parties were mediating between Israel and Palestine in an effort to revive the stalled peace process, a senior official said here.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, Mahmoud al-Aloul, deputy chairman of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Movement, said that “there are many parties who are in permanent contact with the Israelis, us and the Americans, trying to find a solution”, reports Xinhua news agency.

But he declined to say which parties have mediated.

“The Palestinian side is ready to sit wherever the mediating parties want, but we refuse to discuss anything on the table related to the American Deal of the Century or the Israeli plan of annexing parts of the West Bank,” he said.

Al-Aloul added that the Palestinian side “is ready to talk with all parties linked to the international law and the resolutions of international legitimacy”.

Wednesday’s development comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that his plan to annex portions of the Israeli-occupied West Bank “isn’t off the table” yet.

“The issue of West Bank annexation resides with Washington,” he told a meeting of his right-wing Likud faction.

“It is not yet off the table. The option still remains.”

Netanyahu had set July 1 as the starting date for his controversial plan to annex the Jordan Valley, an area in the occupied West Bank.

As the deadline slipped after the White House did not give a green light, Netanyahu said discussions with the US teams will continue.

The Palestinians, who claim all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, have rejected the idea.

More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.