Warning for Obama

RAMALLAH, West Bank – The Palestinian leader has warned President Barack Obama that he will pull out of upcoming peace talks if Israel ends a slowdown of West Bank settlement construction, a Palestinian negotiator said. Direct negotiations aimed at ending the decades-old Mideast conflict are to resume in Washington next week after months of United States diplomatic efforts. Both sides seem pessimistic about the talks, their first in 20 months. Israel’s ten-month slowdown, which bans construction of new Jewish homes in the West Bank, is supposed to end in late September, and Israel’s government is split over whether to extend it. Head Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid out his position in a letter to Obama and also sent copies to the European Union, the United Nations. and Russia – all members of the Quartet of Mideast mediators. (AP)