The Palestinian Authority is continuing to reject any overture for future talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming he will soon be indicted and any progress in talks will be scotched.
Speaking Sunday with the London-based Arabic-language newspaper A-Sharq al-Awsat, a Ramallah official said on condition of anonymity, “The fate of Netanyahu is not in his own hands, so entering talks with Israel will be an exhausting adventure.”
U.S. President Donald Trump is sending his delegation back to the region in the next few days for another attempt at peace-making between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The PA official contended that a similar exercise with former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was eventually convicted on charges of bribery and corruption, destroyed progress that was made in peace talks.
“We were on the verge of an agreement” with Olmert, the official said, “but eventually he had to resign over corruption.”
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said at the time that he and Olmert were close to an agreement that involve land swaps when the Israeli prime minister was indicted.
Subsequent reports revealed, however, that Abbas had already rejected Olmert’s offer because it did not include the territory in Jerusalem that he wanted – just as he had rejected all earlier peace deals by other leaders as well.
