Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas has warned in a letter to EU high representative Catherine Ashton that an end to Israel's partial settlement freeze would bring an immediate halt to direct peace negotiations, which are due to start next month. "It's impossible to conduct negotiations alongside settlement construction," he wrote in a letter to the EU's foreign policy chief, US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, the Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported on Monday.
Israel's settlement freeze is due to expire on September 26.
