RAMALLAH (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would withdraw from peace talks with Israel if it resumed Jewish settlement activities in the occupied West Bank, an official said Saturday.

During a meeting for the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Ramallah last night, “Abbas pledged to withdraw immediately if Israel announced new plans to build settlements,” Hana Amira, a member of the committee, told Xinhua.
On Friday, the PLO accepted an international invitation to resume direct negotiations with Israel on Sept. 2 in Washington. In that month, a 10-month Israeli freeze of settlement construction in the West Bank ends. It also mark the end of the four-month proximity discussions that are taking place through the United States.
Amira said the Palestinian leadership has not received guarantees that Israel would not resume construction on the lands that the Palestinians want to build their state on, including East Jerusalem, the section of the city that the Palestinians see as a future capital and Israel excludes from the 10-month moratorium.
Amira said the U.S. administration “promised” to convince Israel to extend the freeze on settlement activities. However, Israel Radio reported Saturday that the moratorium is unlikely to renew. The report quoted sources as saying that the freeze decision, which took effect in November, “has clearly called for resuming the construction after 10 months.”
The PLO's decision to accept the talks was largely criticized by most of the Palestinian factions that saw it as a retreat from a national principle that settlement and negotiations can not go together.