Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday said peace talks with Israel were in crisis after Washington's decision to drop its demand for a new freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank.

"There is no doubt that there is a crisis," Abbas said in Arabic, translated into Greek, after his meeting with Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Abbas said hoped the European Union would get involved in relaunching the negotiations. "We hope that the time will soon come when the EU will play a role alongside the United States."

The United States admitted Tuesday that it had dropped its demand that Israel renew a freeze on settlements as a condition for resuscitating the direct peace negotiations, a decision welcomed by the Israeli government.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/1452.aspx