Abbas: Settlement construction main impediment to peace talks

            The Foreign Ministry on Saturday said Palestinian preconditions for resuming negotiations are the main impediment to the peace process, rejecting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's claims that Israel is responsible for the current stagnation because of its unwillingness to halt all settlement construction in the West Bank. The peace process is currently stagnant because of Israel's unwillingness to halt all settlement construction in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday. According to a report on Israel Radio, Abbas, following his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, also said that progress on the matter was unlikely to be achieved until George Mitchell, the US Mideast envoy, returned to the region after the upcoming UN General Assembly gathering. In his latest visit this week, Mitchell, who met repeatedly with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Abbas, failed to secure an agreement which would pave the way to a renewal of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. On Friday, Saeb Erekat, the lead negotiator for the Palestinians, was quoted by Israel Radio as saying the United States wanted both a tripartite meeting between President Barack Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas, and a situation where Israel could continue to build settlements, but would not get its wish. The deep gaps between the Israeli and Palestinian positions raised doubt about Obama's plans to revive Mideast peace efforts, including the possibility of holding a trilateral meeting next week in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The key disputes are over West Bank settlement expansion and whether peace talks should begin where they left off.(16,32)