Israel responds to Abbas' political letter

RAMALLAH - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Saturday to a political letter Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave to Israel on April 17, concerning the stalled peace process in the Middle East, official sources said.

Netanyahu's advisor Yitzhak Mulkho arrived on Saturday evening in the West Bank city of Ramallah to hand Abbas the Israeli response, said the sources, adding that Mulkho held talks with senior Palestinian officials.

The sources said that upon arrival, Mulkho met with chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and another two officials, including an aide to Abbas before "meeting with Abbas to hand him Netanyahu's letter."

Earlier on Saturday, Wassel Abu Yousef, an official in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told Xinhua that the meeting in Ramallah is not aiming at holding any negotiations," but only for handing the Israeli response to Abbas."

Abu Yousef revealed that Abbas will chair a meeting of the PLO executive committee on Sunday to debate the Israeli response and decide on what will be the next Palestinian political steps.

Abbas, in his letter to Netanyahu, demanded the Israeli prime minister to accept the principle of the two-state solution according to the 1967 borders, stop all settlement activities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and release all the prisoners were arrested before signing the Oslo peace accords in 1993.

Abbas also demanded Israel to annul all the Israeli security and military measures taken after the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, broke out in late September, 2000.