**Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will not restart talks with Israel in the wake of a row over new settlements, the Arab League says.**Israel announced the plan for 1,600 more homes in occupied East Jerusalem shortly before a peace process visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden.
Mr Abbas’s chief negotiator Saeb Erakat confirmed Mr Abbas had told the Arab League and Mr Biden of his decision.
Mr Biden has condemned the Israeli move as undermining trust.
Israel and the Palestinians had earlier agreed to hold indirect “proximity talks” in a bid to restart the peace process, which has been stalled for 17 months.
But according to Mr Erakat, Mr Abbas had informed Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa that “he could not restart negotiations without the cancellation of the building of 1,600 housing units in east Jerusalem”, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.
Mr Erakat said: “He told Moussa, ‘I am waiting for [US Middle East envoy George] Mitchell to come back next week to give us the answer that the [settlements] decision has been cancelled’.”
‘Irrelevant’ talks
After a meeting of delegates at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Mr Moussa told a news conference that the Palestinian president was “not ready to negotiate under the present circumstances”.
Arab ministers would meet in the next few days to discuss the talks, which Mr Moussa described as “irrelevant” if Israel went ahead with the settlements.
The housing row has overshadowed the visit by Mr Biden, which was meant to promote a new round of US-led negotiations.
Mr Biden condemned Israel over the controversial building project.
He said the US would still play an active and sustained role in the talks process but warned that it was “incumbent on both sides not to complicate the process”.
US special envoy Mr Mitchell is scheduled to arrive in the region next week to conduct the second round of proximity talks.