The Times of Israel reports: In a striking rejection of relentless international efforts to broker new talks, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said Monday that the Palestinians will “never” return to direct negotiations with Israel.
Peace talks collapsed in April 2014 and since then, the situation has deteriorated, with the prospects of fresh dialogue appearing more remote than ever. But Malki said that one-on-one talks with Israel were out of the question.
“We will never go back and sit again in a direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations,” Malki told a press conference. He is visiting Japan with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was due to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later Monday.
Malki stressed that a multilateral framework to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is needed and he praised an initiative discussed late last month by France to revive plans for an international conference to end the conflict.
Read more at the Times of Israel