Palestinian borders could solve settlements row: Fatah

Establishing the borders of a Palestinian state could resolve the dispute over settlements and allow peace talks to resume, senior Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan said on Tuesday.

Dahlan, a leading member of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's secular movement, told AFP in an exclusive interview that setting borders could salvage a two-state solution amid failed US-led peace efforts that could otherwise lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.

"We want to carry out serious negotiations for a two-state solution with a clear timetable not exceeding two years," Dahlan, the former head of Gaza security forces, said in his office in a heavily guarded building in Ramallah.

"But before that we need the international community to announce an agreement on the borders of the two states... That would solve the problem of settlements and the problem of Jerusalem."

US efforts to relaunch Middle East peace talks have floundered in recent days as Abbas has announced he will not stand for re-election because of Washington's failure to convince Israel to freeze settlement construction.

Aides to Abbas have warned that he may go a step further and resign, potentially leading to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo peace process that created it in the 1990s.

Dahlan did not comment on the president's plans but said the Palestinians were deeply frustrated by the US administration's demand that both sides return to the negotiating table with or without a settlement freeze.

The Palestinians were furious when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month praised Israel's proposals for limited settlement curbs as "unprecedented," and saw it as Washington backpedalling on its promises.

"The big crisis is not whether Abu Mazen will resign or not, it's the occupation," Dahlan said, referring to Abbas by his popular nickname.

"If Abu Mazen resigns and someone else becomes president, (Israel) will treat him the same way."

He insisted that Fatah was still committed to a two-state solution but stressed that it had "many options," including declaring statehood unilaterally and asking the UN Security Council to determine final borders.

"We cannot continue talking about the two-state solution as though it is a slogan. We need to transform this slogan into a political decision from international institutions," he said.

"(Israel) wants to force Abu Mazen into never-ending talks, without any guiding framework, with no timetable and with the continuation of settlements."

The number of Jewish settlers living in the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem has doubled since the Oslo process began, and the Palestinians fear further growth could make it impossible to establish a viable state.

"There is no difference between terrorism and settlements. The settlements are collective terrorism and terrorism targets innocent people," Dahlan said.

"If (US President Barack) Obama cannot convince (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to freeze settlements for six months, then how is he going to convince him in the final status agreement to uproot settlements?"