03 March 2016•Update: 04 March 2016
By Anees Bargouthi
RAMALLAH, Palestine
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has reaffirmed his support for a French proposal to convene an international conference aimed at resuming stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
Abbas' remarks came at a meeting of the Fatah movement's Revolutionary Council held in Ramallah on Wednesday night.
"We consider [Israeli] settlement construction to be illegal and ask the [UN] Security Council to investigate it and issue a decision on it," Abbas said at the meeting.
In a reference to the 1993 Oslo Accords, Abbas warned that the Palestinian Authority (PA) -- of which he is the head -- would not comply with past agreements with Israel if the latter failed to respect them.
He went on to say that the Palestinians sought a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Abbas said that the PA’s next step would depend on Israel’s response to its demands.
Peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators collapsed in April 2014 over Israel's refusal to release a group of Palestinian political prisoners despite earlier pledges to do so.
Since then, all attempts to revive negotiations between the two sides have failed, due mainly to Israel's insistence on continuing settlement construction on occupied territories.
Palestinian negotiators insist that Israeli settlement building on Arab land must stop before a comprehensive peace agreement can be reached.
On Wednesday evening, Abbas also stressed the need for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, noting that the two factions had held several meeting over the past month.
"We are committed to achieving Palestinian reconciliation as soon as possible," he said.
He went on to note that a Fatah delegation would soon leave for another round of meetings in Doha with Hamas representatives.
