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Palestinian PM Urges US to Draft Mideast Peace Plan | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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An Israeli Arab youth holds a green Islamic flag and a plastic toy gun in front of the Dome of the Rock Mosque, in the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound during the celebration of the `Children of Al Aqsa. (AP)


An Israeli Arab youth holds a green Islamic flag and a plastic toy gun in front of the Dome of the Rock Mosque, in the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound during the celebration of the `Children of Al Aqsa. (AP)

An Israeli Arab youth holds a green Islamic flag and a plastic toy gun in front of the Dome of the Rock Mosque, in the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound during the celebration of the `Children of Al Aqsa. (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad made a fresh appeal on Saturday to the United States for a plan and a timetable aimed at resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“I call anew on the United States to come up with a plan and a timetable for its application that will contribute to put an end to Jewish settlements and Israeli offensives, and lead to serious negotiations,” Fayyad said.

In a speech at the Qalandiya refugee camp he also said that the international community must bear its responsibilities in pushing Israel to respects its peace commitments.

“Israel is turning its back on international legitimacy,” he told hundreds of Palestinian refugees in the camp between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem.

Palestinian-Israeli peace talks relaunched at a US-hosted conference in November 2008 have been frozen since the end of 2008.

During a landmark speech in Cairo in June, US President Barack Obama pledged to forge a state for Palestinians and rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to halt West Bank settlement expansion.

At the time Fayyad said he saw “hope” for a new era in the speech.

Last week the hawkish Netanyahu invited Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to meet him to restart the stalled peace negotiations.

But the Palestinians have said they will not resume talks unless Israel freezes all Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank in line with US demands.

The presence of more than 280,000 Jewish settlers in communities across the West Bank and another 200,000 in mostly Arab east Jerusalem has been a major stumbling block in past peace negotiations.

Israeli Arab youths gather in front of the Dome of the Rock Mosque, in the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound during the celebration of the Children of Al Aqsa in Jerusalem's Old City. (AP)

Israeli Arab youths gather in front of the Dome of the Rock Mosque, in the Al Aqsa Mosque Compound during the celebration of the Children of Al Aqsa in Jerusalem’s Old City. (AP)

An Israeli soldier scuffles with an Israeli left-wing activist during a pro-Palestinian protest in the village of Safa near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Bat Ayin. (AP)

An Israeli soldier scuffles with an Israeli left-wing activist during a pro-Palestinian protest in the village of Safa near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Bat Ayin. (AP)