JERUSALEM: Comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum make it clear he is against the establishment of a Palestinian state, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat has said.

“Anyone who says they want the settlers to remain is actually saying they don’t want the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Erakat said in remarks published Monday in Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam.

Erakat was reacting to comments by Netanyahu at last week’s WEF gathering in Davos, where the premier insisted Israel would not evacuate Jewish settlements built on occupied land the Palestinians want for their future state.

Netanyahu has publicly supported the two-state solution during US-sponsored talks which envisage the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a final peace agreement.

But at Davos, the premier told Israeli journalists at a briefing, “I have said before and I say again; I do not intend to dismantle any settlement, I don’t intend to uproot any Israeli.”

Israel’s settlements, which are illegal under international law, are a key sticking point that is preventing peace talks from making any visible progress.

Some Israeli media said that Netanyahu was speaking in response to a question specifically about the Jordan Valley, the part of the occupied West Bank bordering Jordan.

Angry Israeli hard-liners on Monday linked Netanyahu’s Davos comments to a report by an international news agency that the premier is floating the idea of existing settlements being leased from the Palestinians in a future Palestinian state.

“We do not leave settlers behind enemy lines,” deputy defense minister Danny Danon, a hawkish member of Netanyahu’s own Likud party, told army radio.

“It’s an idea of leaving Jews, abandoning Jews to the control of the Palestinians,” deputy foreign minister Zeev Elkin, also of Likud, told the station.