DUBAI – Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah met Monday the U.S.Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt in West Bank cityRamallah, urging the U.S. to pressure Israel over settlements.
According to a statement by the PM’s office, the meeting tacked the issueof the national reconciliation as well and the latest efforts by U.S.President Donald Trump to revive the peace process between Palestine andIsrael.
Hamdallah stressed that the main obstacle in the path of the peace processis the Israeli occupation and settlement expansion, which he described asdestructive to the two state solution and the establishment of ageographically continuous Palestinian state.
He urged the U.S. administration to pressure Israel to allow thePalestinian government to work freely in the territories classified as AreaC in the West Bank and stop settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.
Under the interim Oslo Accords signed between the Palestine LiberationOrganisation and Israel in 1993, the West Bank is divided into three zones:A, B and C, with area A under Palestinian control, B under Israeli securitycoordination and Palestinian administrative control, and C under fullIsraeli control.
The Israeli settlement construction is one of the top and most complicatedissues in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
The peace talks between Palestine and Israel have been stalled since April2014. The U.S.-sponsored talks that lasted for nine months achieved notangible results.