- RAMALLAH, West Bank: Palestinians on Friday threatened to renounce the Oslo peace agreement in retaliation to Israel's refusal to freeze settlement building on occupied land.
- The United States, which failed to persuade Israel to agree to a three-month moratorium on construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, was scrambling to put negotiations back on track on Friday.
The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization met here Friday to decide on a response to the Israeli intransigence.
Hanna Amireh, a member of the Executive Committee and head of its social affairs department, told Arab News that the Palestinian Authority (PA) plans to stop security coordination with Israel, which is part of the road map peace plan.
Amireh added that the PA will also stop combating armed Palestinian groups, which is part of its commitment to Israel under the Oslo peace agreement.
The White House said Friday that President Barack Obama will "remain engaged" in the Middle East peace process. "The president understands that this process is one that would not be easy and that would take the continued and constant engagement of our country," spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters in Washington.
"Despite any short-term setback to that, he'll continue to remain engaged."
The peace talks hit a major setback this week after Washington admitted it had failed to secure a new Israeli settlement freeze despite weeks of diplomatic wrangling. The announcement effectively signaled the end of direct peace talks, as the Palestinians have refused to negotiate while Israel continues to build on occupied Arab land they claim for a future state.
But Israeli and Palestinian leaders were in Washington on Friday for talks with the administration, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to outline proposals to break the deadlock in a speech later.
On Friday she met with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. She was also to hold talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, US officials said.
She will then outline Washington's new approach to getting the peace talks back on track in a speech at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, to be addressed by Fayyad and Barak as well.
On Thursday Clinton met with Israel's chief peace negotiator Yitzhak Molcho from whom she sought "a perspective on the Israeli side of how to move forward," her spokesman Philip Crowley said, without elaborating.
Obama presided over the relaunch of direct talks in Washington in September, only to see them stall within weeks when the Israeli settlement moratorium expired and the Palestinians refused to return to the table.
On Thursday, Abbas denied in Cairo after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the Palestinian negotiator had gone to the US for indirect talks with Washington. Erekat was in Washington for consultations and not for talks, he insisted.
"There are discussions and consultations between the Palestinian leadership and the US administration. Sen. George Mitchell will arrive in the region on Monday, and Erekat went to Washington to hold talks with Secretary Clinton," Abbas told a Cairo news conference.
Meanwhile, another PLO official said that the US invitation to Palestinian and Israeli officials to meet in Washington "for indirect talks is a dangerous maneuver."
Tayseer Khaled, member of the Executive Committee and head of its expatriate department, said that the US invitation "shows a conspiracy between the Americans and Israel.
The aim of the US decision to bring Israeli and Palestinian negotiators for separate talks is to block the ongoing international recognition of an independent Palestinian state, mainly after Brazil and Argentina recognized it, Khaled said.
Earlier this week, Brazil and Argentina announced that they recognize the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. The Palestinians expect more countries to follow suit.
— With input from agencies
