JERUSALEM (AP) — A top Palestinian official is questioning the U.S. ability to forge Middle East peace after a new breakdown in attempts to revive negotiations.
Yasser Abed Rabbo said Wednesday that if the U.S. was unable to persuade Israel to temporarily freeze Jewish settlement in the West Bank, he wondered how it could broker a permanent peace deal.
“This is the big question now,” Abed Rabbo told the Voice of Palestine radio station.
For weeks, the U.S. has been negotiating the terms of a settlement freeze with Israel in order to bring the Palestinians back to peace talks. But late Tuesday, U.S. officials said the Obama administration had abandoned the effort.
The Palestinians say they won’t resume talks unless Israel halts settlement construction on captured territories they claim for a future state.
