BETHLEHEM: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday that the US had yet to present a framework for a Middle East peace deal, as a deadline ending nine months of negotiations loomed.
“Until now, we haven’t received the framework agreement we were promised,” Abbas said at news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Israel and the Palestinians have been locked in talks that US Secretary of State John Kerry fought hard to kick-start in July after a three-year hiatus, but the negotiations have faltered over key issues.
The negotiations are set to end on April 29, by which date Kerry hopes to have put a framework agreement in place so the two sides can extend their negotiations to work towards a final peace deal.
“When the framework is presented to us, we’ll give our opinion on it,” Abbas said. “We have never discussed prolonging the negotiations at all, nor was it offered to us.”
AFP
