JERUSALEM, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Israel will not meet Palestinian demands to freeze all construction of West Bank and east Jerusalem settlements, an unnamed senior government official says.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has issued a call for such a three-month freeze as condition for resuming direct peace negotiations, but an Israeli official quoted in Tuesday's Jerusalem Post says the government has no intention of meeting the demand.
"We are not going to accept the Palestinian position on Jerusalem as a condition for entering the talks," the official said.
Abbas told the British newspaper The Guardian he'd re-enter direct Mideast peace negotiations if Israel froze all construction for three months and accepted the June 4, 1967, borders as the basis for land swaps.
"These are not preconditions. They are requirements in the road map," Abbas told the newspaper. "If they are not prepared to do that, it means they don't want a political solution."
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, said Palestinians have fallen short on meeting the obligations under the "road map for peace," which calls for the PA to abandon violence and make democratic reforms in exchange for statehood.
