Ramallah, March 23 (IANS): Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that the Israeli policies of settlement expansion and the killing of Palestinians put the peace talks in a negative atmosphere, a media report said.
"The policies of the Israeli government cause a failure of the international efforts aiming at achieving peace in the Middle East, " Xinhua quoted Abbas as saying during a meeting with Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn Saturday night.
He reiterated that the Palestinian side is committed to achieving just and everlasting peace based on the implementation of the international resolutions until the establishment of the Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.