GAZA STRIP, November 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Palestinian leadership does not believe that an Israeli offer to limit settlement construction for ten months is sufficient for peace talks to restart, a PNA spokesman said on Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced earlier on Wednesday that construction would be limited in the occupied West Bank, but not in East Jerusalem. He also said construction would resume in the future.
"Israel's government has made an important step toward peace today," Netanyahu said in a televised address. "Let us make peace together." The Israeli offer was welcomed by the White House.
However, the Palestinians say the offer does not go far enough.
"Any return to negotiations must be on the basis of a complete settlement freeze, and in Jerusalem foremost," Palestinian National Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rdineh said.
The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Some half a million Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both of which have been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
