Palestine 'may abandon two-state solution'

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warns that continued expansion of Israeli settlements could force the Palestinian Authority (PA) to abandon the two-state solution.

"Successive Israeli governments have destroyed any chance of reaching a two-state solution," said Erekat on Wednesday, noting that PA must start searching for 'other options'.

"A Palestinian state without Jerusalem (Al-Quds) as its capital would be meaningless. The Palestinian people haven't excluded other options, including the option of a one-state solution," he told reporters in Ramallah.

He said it was time for acting PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to 'tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement activities, the two-state solution is no longer an option'.

Israel has long refused to halt its construction activity on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, while the Palestinians insist on a freeze on the expansion of Israeli settlements as a precondition to any peace negotiations with the Israeli side.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that talks should be resumed without a settlement freeze, and that 'everything, from borders to Jerusalem to refugees, has to be resolved between the parties' once negotiations have resumed.

This is while the Palestinians insist should the talks resume, they should continue where they broke down under former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.

"We are talking about resuming final status negotiations," Erekat said. "On the other hand, Israel is talking about beginning the final status talks. The Americans, for their part, are talking about re-launching the final status talks."

Clinton, who was on a visit to Egypt, stressed that Washington's opposition to the illegal Israeli construction activity remained unchanged but praised Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu's offer to temporarily limit construction in West Bank settlements to 3,000 additional housing units.

The Palestinian top negotiator said her remarks only opened the door to more settlements in the next two years, reiterating that the PA leadership would not accept any compromise that did not call for a full cessation of settlement construction in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (Al-Quds).

The alternative left for Palestinians in the 'grave' current is to 'refocus their attention on the one-state solution where Muslims, Christians and Jews can live as equals', Erekat said.