RAMALLAH: The entire team of Palestinian peace negotiators has resigned to protest continued Israeli settlement building, two of them said on Wednesday, but president Mahmud Abbas has yet to accept their resignations.

Negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh said the move was in response to “increasing settlement building (by Israel) and the absence of any hope of achieving results.” “Until now, president Abbas has not accepted our resignation,” he added.

Shtayyeh held Israel “completely responsible for the failure of negotiations, because of the continuation and escalation of settlement building.”

“Abbas has a number of choices here – he can refuse or accept and form a new delegation, or demand a new negotiations mechanism,” he said, referring to the possibility of indirect talks through a US team.

Abbas had warned that he would declare the peace process over if they went ahead.

He told Egyptian TV channel CBC late on Tuesday that the negotiators had presented their resignations, but that he had not yet accepted them.—AFP