U.S.: Failure to move to direct Mideast peace talks will have consequences

The United States did not threaten to cut its ties with the Palestinian Authority unless President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to enter direct peace negotiations with Israel, a U.S. State Department official said on Monday, adding, however, that there were consequences to the failure to advance the stalling peace talks.

Over the weekend, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, claimed that Washington had had ramped up pressure on Abbas to move from American-mediated talks to direct negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“There has been huge pressure on the Palestinian Authority to move to direct talks,” Ashrawi said in an interview with al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arabic-language newspaper published in London.

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