GAZA, Jan 22 (KUNA) -- The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) asked the Israeli government to release Dr. Aziz Duwaik, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), 23 PLC members and 107 detainees, a senior PNA official said Sunday.
"Palestinian chief negotiator Dr. Sa'eb Erekat sent messages carrying the demand to the Israeli side and the International Quartet on the Middle East peace process (the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia)," the official told KUNA here under the condition of anonymity.
The almost identical messages were delivered to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Quartet's Special Envoy Tony Blair, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"In the messages, the PNA warned that it would boycott the groundbreaking talks with Israel, being hosted by Amman, capital of Jordan, if Israel failed to halt the Jewish settlement constructions in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem by January 26," the official disclosed.
"The strongly-worded messages held Israel responsible for the current impasse of the peace process and accused the Jewish state of trying to undermine the inter-Palestinian reconciliation," he pointed out.
"The PNA renews commitment to the quest for reconciliation and can by no means accept the detention of Dr. Duwaik or any Palestinian citizen," he added.
Dr. Erekat asked Israel to release Duwaik and other 23 MPs on top of who are Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Ahmad Sa'dat and Marwan Al-Barghothi - a Fatah leader.
Israel have been detaining 130 Palestinian activists since June 4, 1994, after signing the Oslo Accords, the official added.
Duwaik was imprisoned by Israel on August 6, 2006, on charges of being a member of Hamas; he was released on June 22, 2009, before being rearrested January 19, 2012, while traveling to the West Bank city of Hebron.
KUNA
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