Abbas calls for renewed talks, slams aggression

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas called on Friday for a return to peace talks, but slammed Israel's latest plans to build 3000 settler homes in reaction to a United Nations vote recognising Palestine as a non-member state.
"I've said a thousand times that we want to resume negotiations and we are ready to do it," Abbas told reporters in New York.
"We are not setting any condition but there are at least 15 UN resolutions which consider settlement activity as illegal and an obstacle to peace which must be removed," he said. "Why do (the Israelis) not stop settlement?"
Israeli media reports said that some new settlement construction would be in a highly contentious area of the West Bank known as E1, a corridor that runs between the easternmost edge of annexed east Jerusalem and the Maaleh Adumim settlement.
Palestinians bitterly oppose the E1 project, as it effectively cuts the occupied West Bank in two, north to south, and makes the creation of a viable Palestinian state highly problematic.
In the landmark Thursday vote in New York, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution recognising Palestine within the 1967 borders as a non-member observer state.
Israel lashed out in response on Friday, with an official confirming to AFP plans to build 3,000 settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Palestine Liberation Organisation official Hanan Ashrawi reacted by telling AFP "it is an act of Israeli aggression against a state, and the world needs to take up its responsibilities."
Israel's main ally the United States and Britain also criticised the decision on new homes citing this will hamper peace efforts.
The move was also denounced by Peace Now, Israel's settlement watchdog.
"Instead of punishing the Palestinians, this government is punishing Israel by making peace harder to achieve and showing that Israel does not want peace," said spokeswoman Hagit Ofran. "That is very dangerous."
Israeli rights group Yesh Din said the plan amounted to "collective punishment trampling Palestinian human rights".
Israel has long feared that if the Palestinians won the rank of a UN non-member state, they could pursue the Jewish state for war crimes at the International Criminal Court in The Hague -- particularly over settlement.
With their newly acquired status, the Palestinians now have access to a range of UN agencies as well as to the ICC, but Abbas said he had no plans to immediately petition the tribunal, unless new Israeli aggression.