"It's impossible to conduct negotiations alongside settlement construction," Abbas wrote in a letter sent to U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Catherine Ashton, high representative of the European Union on foreign policy.
Netanyahu said on Friday in a statement from his office, that " We are coming to the talks with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel's national security interests, foremost of which is security."
"It can be done in less than a year," chief PNA negotiator Saeb Erekat said last week of achieving a possible deal, but added, " the most important thing now is to see to it that the Israeli government refrains from settlement activities, incursions, fait accomplis policies," according to Erekat.