Abbas rejects Blair’s proposals to resume negotiations

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet the envoy of the Quartet for peace in the Middle East Tony Blair, on Saturday evening, in Amman. Abbas is scheduled to inform UK's former PM about his refusal of the solutions suggested by the Quartet to return to negotiations with Israel. A source close to Abbas said that the President will explain to Blair the Palestinian position, demanding to stop Israeli settlement building and to commit to a two-state solution, within the borders of 1967, as a basis to go back to negotiations with the Israeli government. The source added that Abbas demanded the Quartet to exercise serious pressure on Israel to make it adhere to those principles, if a serious peace process is desired. The solutions proposed by the Quartet were met with “dissatisfaction” by the Palestinian leadership that considered them new evidences of Blair's "bias". According to the same source, Blair's proposals included the release of a number of former Israeli prisoners- not more than 20 - and the permission for the Palestinian mail to enter from Jordan rather than from Israel, which would benefit the Palestinian Authority. The Quartet's proposals also included the Israeli approval of a number of internationally funded projects in the (C) areas of the West Bank, the extension of the authority control over the (B) areas, and the opening of 20 new security centres in the (A) areas. Abbas's meeting with Blair will be followed by Abbas' visit to Cairo to participate in an Arab meting for peace talks, which is scheduled for Sunday to discuss the developments of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The meeting will take place at the request of the Palestinian government after the “exploratory” meetings held last month, with no particular success, with Israel in Amman. Abbas is expected to brief the committee on the Amman talks and to seek its advice after their failure, which was caused by the Israeli refusal to stop settlements and recognise the 1967 borders of the future Palestinian state.