Abbas holds talks with US envoy

18/06/2010| IslamWeb

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has told George Mitchell, the US-Middle East envoy, that the United States must press Israel to lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Mitchell arrived in Ramallah, the political capital of the occupied West Bank, to meet with Abbas on Friday, after talks with the Israeli prime minister on the previous day.

Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said that during the talks, the Palestinian president stressed that lifting the blockade would favor a restart of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The US envoy is visiting the Middle East to call for restraint from all sides in the region to enable proximity talks to develop into direct negotiations later in the year.

Talks with Israel were halted when Israel launched a devastating 22-day offensive in Gaza in December 2008, killing at least 1,200 Palestinians and leaving much of the Gaza Strip in ruins.

Abbas condemned the blockade as "collective punishment" against Gaza's 1.5 million residents and dismissed as "insufficient" an easing of the measures announced by Israel on Thursday, Erakat said.

Mitchell has brokered indirect talks between the Israelis and Palestinians and has been acting as a go-between since they started in May.

Mitchell is due to arrive in Egypt on Saturday.

 
 
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Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and George Mitchell, the US-Middle East envoy

 

Al-Jazeera