By MOHAMMED MAR’I | ARAB NEWS

Published: Mar 10, 2010 23:35 Updated: Mar 10, 2010 23:35

RAMALLAH: A senior Palestinian official on Wednesday criticized the Arab League for offering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a four-month period to resume the indirect peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.

Mustafa Al-Barghouthi, a member of the Palestine Legislative Council and chairman of the Palestinian National Initiative, said that the “Arab League gave Netanyahu four months while he did not give them four hours.”

Barghouthi told Arab News that “only hours after the Arab foreign ministers announced their support of the American initiative for indirect negotiations, Netanyahu announced a series of settlement projects in the Palestinian territories.”

After their two-day meeting in Cairo, Arab foreign ministers on Wednesday gave a green light to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resume talks with Israel on the bases of the US offer brought forward by Middle East envoy George Mitchell.

Al-Barghouthi, also former information minister, said that Netanyahu followed the Arab League’s announcement by approving 112 housing units in Beitar Illit settlement and 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem.

He called on the Arab League to revoke its decision to negotiate with Netanyahu who “behaves like a gang boss.” 

Al-Barghouthi added that “Netanyahu does not want peace but wants to create facts on ground that will transfer the idea of an independent Palestinian state into a one of cantons and enclaves.”

On Wednesday, the secretary general of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said Arab states have withdrawn their support to indirect talks between the Palestinians and Israel after the latter approved plans to build 1600 housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.

Abed Rabbo told the official Voice of Palestine radio that “some Arab countries told the US that the Arab League’s decision regarding the indirect talks no longer existed.”

Abbas, who met US Vice President Joe Biden in Ramallah on Wednesday, called on the Arab League to respond to the new construction approvals on Tuesday night. ¬