A Palestinian unity deal has irked the Israeli regime, with Tel Aviv canceling a scheduled meeting with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
“Israel cancelled the negotiations meeting that was supposed to take place this evening,” Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on his Twitter feed on Wednesday.
The decision came after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) pledged to form a joint government.
Chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erakat, however, told reporters that no meeting with the Israelis had been planned.
Erakat blamed Netanyahu for sabotaging the so-called peace talks by persisting in the continued expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“Netanyahu stopped the negotiations a long time ago,” he said. “He chose the settlements instead of the peace. He is demolishing the peace process.”
The PA official also stressed that the Palestinians would meet bilaterally with US envoy Martin Indyk in Ramallah on Thursday.
Meanwhile, acting PA chief Mahmoud Abbas said that the deal between Hamas and the PLO, which includes his Fatah party, does not contradict the negotiations he is pursuing with Israel, and an independent Palestinian state remains his goal.
At a news conference earlier in the besieged Gaza Strip, Hamas and the PLO announced the deal for a coalition government to end seven years of separate administrations in the West Bank and Gaza.
Under the long-awaited deal, the rival Palestinian factions are to form a unity government within five weeks and hold national elections six months later.
The rival Hamas and Fatah parties signed a reconciliation agreement in Egypt in 2011, which was not implemented due to some differences.
MRS/MAM/MHB
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