Abbas 'flexible' on settlements to bring about peace talks

The Palestinian Authority's (PA) position on illegal Israeli settlements has not changed and all settlement activity must be stopped, a leading Ramallah official said on Thursday.

Mohammad Mustafa, President Mahmoud Abbas' senior economic adviser, appeared to have changed his mind however, after he told Bloomberg News the PA was prepared to ignore Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to bring about peace with Israel.

"The Palestinian leadership wants to give the administration of US President Donald Trump an opportunity to relaunch the peace process," Mustafa's office said in a written statement.

"The president's position has not changed, nor have his efforts to realise our national rights to freedom and independence through all available means."

The adviser’s statement followed a news story published by Bloomberg merely hours before, which reported him saying Abbas would renege on key negotiation positions.

"We have not made the settlements an up-front issue this time," Mustafa told Bloomberg News.

"We think it's better for all of us right now to focus on giving this new administration a chance to deliver."

Trump broke a campaign pledge last month by signing a presidential waiver to postpone the relocation of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Trump overcame strong lobbying from Israeli and pro-Israel camps in order to sign the six-monthly presidential waiver to the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act.

"The embassy issue is behind us," said Mohammed Shtayyeh, another of Abbas' aides.

President Abbas is understood to be motivated by a need to stimulate the local economy to counter high levels of unemployment in the West Bank.

Mustafa said in his statement that job creation was at the heart of the solution to Palestine's economic woes.

This solution required international support and a "strategic and significant investment programme", the economic adviser said.