10 December 2010 - 20:30

More Middle East peace talks will be "an exercise in futility" unless the United States "curbs Israeli violations", Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's executive committee, said in a press interview.

RAMALLAH (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - More Middle East peace talks will be "an exercise in futility" unless the United States "curbs Israeli violations", Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's executive committee, said in a press interview.

She added that more talks would lead to more failure and more distrust.

Ashrawi said in the interview published on Thursday that the two-state solution was no longer an applicable solution, adding rather that it has become too difficult if not "impossible".

Ashrawi, a veteran of the 20-year old settlement process, faulted the U.S. approach for giving Israel time to expand settlements and deepen its control over the land where the Palestinians aim to found a sovereign state.

"This approach has to stop. You cannot keep insulting our intelligence by pretending that you want a process and a two-state solution and then allowing it to be destroyed before our eyes," she said.

Any negotiations must focus immediately on ending the occupation, she said. Israel, she said, was working to leave the Palestinians as "a statelet made up of population centers: Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, all surrounded by settlements".

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