Palestinian leader meets Russian president Medvedev

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on Friday, with the two leaders focussing on ways to resume Middle East peace talks.        

Direct discussions between the Palestinians and Israelis have been stalled since September, 2010 over the issue of Israeli settlement construction. Abbas says the Palestinians will not resume talks unless Israel stops building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 war from Jordan and claimed by the Palestinians as parts of their future state.      

Abbas says continued growth in the settlements, now home to some 500,000 Israelis, is a sign of bad faith by Israel.      

Israel maintains that the issue of settlements would be solved automatically once there are agreed-upon borders and rejects any preconditions to negotiations.      

Early this month, the chief negotiators from the two sides began meeting again in hopes of finding a formula for the formal resumption of talks.    

APTN