WASHINGTON- The United States and its partners have a duty to show that the Israelis, rather than the Palestinians, are blocking a restart of peace negotiations, the chief Palestinian negotiator said Tuesday.
Saeb Erakat, speaking to reporters after he met in Washington with US envoy George Mitchell, made the appeal because he said Israel is trying to pin the blame on the Palestinians.
"When we say that we want to resume permanent status negotiations on all core issues without exceptions, that's also an Israeli obligation," the top Palestinian negotiator said outside the State Department.
"So now the Israeli side is trying to project as if they want to negotiate, then we say 'no,'" he said.
"And I believe the Americans and other members of the quartet have a responsibiity to tell the international community about the side that's implementing its commitments and complying with its commitments and the side that's refusing to comply with its commitments," Erakat said.
The quartet -- composed of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- launched a road map for peace in 2003, one that calls for a Palestinian state living in peace beside a secure Israel.
"Israel so far rejects to stop settlement activity, including natural growth and rejects to resume negotiations on core issues like Jerusalem and settlements and refugees, where we left them in December 2008," he said.
The peace talks were suspended in the wake of the Israeli December-January war on Gaza.
In a bid to revive the talks, President Barack Obama's administration has demanded a complete freeze to all illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian territories under illegal Israeli occupation since 1967.
But Israel has so far balked.
At a conference in occupied Jerusalem, hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday to lead his people to "peace" with Israel.
Netanyahu said he had already told Israelis of the need for peace in a speech earlier in the year when he accepted the need for a Palestinian state along side Israel. Now, he said, it was Abbas' turn.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said: "We continue to move forward with ... our facilitative role in trying to get the Israelis and Palestinians to have direct talks."
He said Mitchell met Tuesday with Israeli negotiators before meeting the Palestinians later, adding he expected the US envoy to meet the Palestinians again on Wednesday.
"This is a big priority for this administration to get to the point where we can get the two sides to sit down and ... come to a comprehensive peace agreement," Kelly told reporters.
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