JERUSALEM, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not changed his stance on the Palestinian Authority's list of preconditions for entering into direct talks.
That hasn't changed despite the Quartet's plan to issue a statement calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state in 2011 based on the pre-1967 armistice lines with Jerusalem as its capital.
Chris Mitchell, CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief delved into the issue of American evangelicals giving support to Israel as the international community puts more pressure on the Jewish state, on Monday's of CBN Newschannel Morning program.
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The Quartet's statement will likely recommend that Israel extend the temporary construction freeze on Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), which ends September 26.
The Quartet is composed of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia.
Netanyahu met Sunday evening with senior cabinet ministers before his Monday departure for Greece.
The seven-member forum, known as the Septet, rejected the Quartet's statement, expected to be issued early in the week.
"The Quartet announcement will likely serve as a fig leaf for stipulating Palestinian preconditions and that is unacceptable to us," one senior government official said.
The U.S. is expected to issue a separate statement following the Quartet's announcement, calling on both parties to enter direct talks without any preconditions.
Some analysts believe PA President Mahmoud Abbas has been stalling his decision to coincide with the end of the construction moratorium.
Like the Quartet, Abbas is expected to demand an extension of the construction freeze as another precondition to sitting down at the negotiating table, but Netanyahu has not changed his position on this issue either.
Meanwhile, a group of Palestinian "resistance" movements released a statement on Sunday rejecting any negotiations with Israel, according to an AFP report.
"The Palestinian resistance movements affirm their rejection of direct or indirect negotiations and warn against the dangerous consequences of policies aiming at selling cheaply Palestinian national rights," the statement read.
Signatories included Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Despite the Quartet's soon-to-be-released statement on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, nothing much has changed. Still, Netanyahu remains hopeful that Abbas will agree to meet with him without any preconditions.