Ramallah, January 22, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets on Friday with the U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell in the presidential headquarters in Ramallah.
Palestinian sources said that President Abbas will emphasize the necessity of stopping settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in order to return to the negotiations that will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state on land occupied in 1967.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed only to a slowdown in construction, and that has left the sides at an impasse.
Mitchell is holding talks with Abbas even as hopes are fading that Washington can re-start Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations anytime soon.
The PLO factions held a meeting earlier and confirmed their decision to reject a return to negotiations until settlement expansion is completely stopped.
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