PA’s Hamdallah: After Iran Solved, Back to Palestinians

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah claimed on Monday that he has received “certain assurances from the United States” that once the Iran deal is done, it will back a French proposal for a timetable to Mideast peace talks.

The disclosure came in an interview with the Washington Post.

Hamdallah said that he hopes “a new framework” for negotiations will set a deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Yehudah and Shomron and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

An already existing Palestinian resolution calls for a 2017 deadline, but Hamdallah denied that this was a precondition for renewed talks. Israel has often balked at Palestinian insistence on preconditions that effectively seek to extract concessions from Israel before they even meet at the negotiating table.

Although Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated just days ago that “the only way is direct talks,” the Palestinians are bent on third-party involvement.

As Hamdallah told the Post, “We’ve experienced direct talks, and they were a failure,” adding, “We need outside intervention from the U.N., from the superpowers, from the United States.”

This article appeared in print on page 7 of the June 2nd, 2015 edition of Hamodia.