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As PA (Palestinian Authority) Chairman Abu Mazen recently announced his willingness to resume diplomatic talks with Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced Israel’s willingness to resume talks, however, without any preconditions.

Following are excerpts from PM Netanyahu’s remarks from Tuesday, 3 Elul, from a joint press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte:

“I am prepared to meet with Abu Mazen at any time for direct talks without preconditions. I have said this hundreds of times and I am reiterating it now. I do not care about the place be it in Holland, Moscow or anywhere else – this is not a problem, and it certainly could be in Moscow. I have said this to President Putin. I said this on Sunday to his envoy Bogdanov. The main question is, of course, whether Abu Mazen is prepared to meet without preconditions? We hear contradictory reports about this. Just yesterday Palestinian spokespersons made it clear that they are ready to meet but they have conditions – releasing prisoners, they want to know if the talks will have results, etc. If Abu Mazen is ready to meet for direct talks without preconditions, I am ready at any time. I have been calling on him to do this for almost seven years already and if he agrees to do this – there will be a meeting.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)