The Palestinian Authority is committed to the regional peace process but it will not strike peace unless its terms are met in full, something for which it cannot find a partner, a senior Palestinian official said Sunday.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a top adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told Israeli journalists that the Palestinians were interested in peace negotiations but "we have no Israeli partner for that."
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The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been deadlocked since 2014, and various attempts by Israel, Arab powers and the United States to reignite it have failed.
Last month, the Trump administration released its long-awaiting plan for regional peace, but the Palestinians rejected it outright, saying the outline, plan, dubbed the "deal of the century," was grossly biased in favor of Israel and was therefore doomed to fail.
Speaking with reporters in Ramallah, Rudeineh asserted that the Palestinians were not to blame for the stagnated peace talks, but rather it was Israel and the US that are at fault.
"The Israeli government does not want a peace agreement with us. If there really was an interest in having real negotiations based on our demands, it could have been finalized in two weeks. There is also the American plan that, instead of helping to achieve peace, actually hurts the odds [of achieving it]," he said.
Abbas' adviser further claimed that while the PA does not interfere in Israeli elections, they would like to see a regime change in Israel.
The hawkish policies of the right-wing Israeli governments of the past decade have been steadfast in their demand that the Palestinians cannot set preconditions for the resumption of the peace talks.
"Our position is that we do not interfere in the Israeli elections. We want a partner for peace and we do not care if it will be [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu or [Blue and White leader Benny] Gantz. At the same time, we are waiting to see the results of the Israeli elections and then decide on our next steps," he said.
"We have not stopped being committed to peace, but demand that it be done on our own terms. Over the years, we have only lost from US intervention, including in the [1993] Oslo Accords. There is no need for the Americans, anything that will be done directly in closed rooms between the parties away from all will succeed," he told reporters.
Rudeineh also had a message for Israelis. saying, "The Palestinians do not want violence and it is very important for us that the Israelis know this and understand that our path is not violent."
