The Palestinian Authority is ready to resume peace talks with Israel and has relayed a message to that effect to the international peacemaking Quartet, French news agency AFP reported on Monday,
According to the report, the Palestinians are "ready to resume direct bilateral negotiations from where they stopped" with Israel, and presented a counteroffer to US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan including "minor" territorial concessions.
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The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been deadlocked since 2014.
The report noted that PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh mentioned the so-called "counteroffer" on June 9, but made no mention of direct talks with Israel.
However, the Palestinian apparently conditioned any progress in the peace talks in Israel shelving its plan to extend sovereignty to large parts of Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley – something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to promote in the next few weeks.
Ramallah has threatened that if Israel pushed through with the move, it would render the 1993 Oslo Accords – on which the peace process in predicated – null and void.
"If Israel declares the annexation of any part of the Palestinian territory, that will necessarily mean the annulation of all signed agreements," the PA wrote in the letter sent to the Quartet, which comprises envoys from the United Nations, US, European Union, and Russia.
"No one has as much interest as the Palestinians in reaching a peace agreement and no one has as much to lose as the Palestinians in the absence of peace," it said. "We are ready to have our state with a limited number of weapons and a powerful police force to uphold law and order."
Overnight Sunday Netanyahu said he would welcome a resumption of the peace talks.
"Israel is ready for negotiations, I am ready for negotiations and believe that many Arab states hope we will enter such negotiations with the Palestinians," Netanyahu said in a pre-recorded video that aired at the Christians United for Israel Virtual Summit.
He further implored the Palestinians "not to waste another opportunity, not to waste another decade in the attempt to eradicate Israel. They should support Trump's place for peace."
However, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' office denied the report in AFP, telling Israel Hayom that while Ramallah would be willing to resume negotiations, it has not informed the Quartet as much.
One Palestinian official noted that as no official message was relayed to the Quartet the Palestinians are not obligated by it.
The adamant denial has led Israeli officials to believe the alleged message to the international forum was a ploy seeking to get it to pressure Israel to delay its sovereignty bid.
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