Report: Abbas in Hurry to Resume Talks With Israel

The Palestinian Authority is interested in resuming talks with Israel, Yisrael Hayom quoted a senior Palestinian official in a report, who said that Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has contacted officials in the future Biden administration asking “to resume negotiations with Israel as soon as possible through American mediation and without preconditions.”

Abbas would like to take advantage of the fact that no clear policy has been formulated by the Biden administration yet in regard to the Palestinian cause and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the official said.

“The goal is to strike while the iron is hot and resume negotiations without delay. The new Biden administration has a lot on its plate: it has internal problems to resolve, it has to come up with a policy about the Iran nuclear deal, and restore its relationship with China and the European Union.”

The official added that if all that resulted in the Biden administration pushing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the bottom of its agenda, then the Palestinian cause will enter a limbo, and the political process will take months to progress.

In the meantime, Israel would be able to formulate policies that will perpetuate the current situation, perhaps even lead to the expansion of existing settlements and the building of new ones.

According to the official, Abbas’ message was delivered to Washington by the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, with whom Abbas met in Doha.