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U.S. not reject Abbas-Netanyahu meeting: Palestinian official

Xinhua, September 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Palestinian Presidency denied on Sunday reports that the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opposed a meeting between the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The spokesperson of the Presidency Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement published by the Palestinian official news agency Wafa that the position of President Abbas is clear.

"He is ready to meet and resume negotiations if Netanyahu stops settlement activities and release the fourth batch of the pre-Oslo detainees," the statement said.

The Israeli newspaper of Haaretz quoted identical Palestinian and Israeli sources as saying that Kerry has recently blocked a Abbas-Netanyahu meeting.

In its Sunday edition, the paper said that Netanyahu has sent a message to Abbas proposing a meeting to discuss ways to resume the peace talks.

Haaretz reported that a non-American body tried to arrange that meeting, adding that Abbas has agreed to attend the meeting, but asked to inform Kerry first.

The paper's sources explained that Kerry has asked Abbas to delay this meeting for a few weeks, until after the scheduled meeting between Kerry and the Palestinian president in New York on the sidelines of the UN's General Assembly annual meetings.

Wafa reported that the Kerry-Abbas meeting was held on Saturday and they discussed the region's situation and the development of the Mideast peace process.

In August, 2013, the Israeli cabinet approved the release of a total of 104 prisoners, but the prisoners would be released every six to eight weeks according to the progress made during the negotiations between Israel and Palestinians.

All of the 104 Palestinian prisoners were incarcerated prior to the implementation of the Oslo Accords, most serving life sentences in one of the 10 Israeli military prisons.

However, the negotiations have been frozen since April 2014, when Israel announced that it would not release the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners because of renewed Palestinian efforts to join international organizations. Endit