英语文摘:Palestinians "broke their commitment": Israeli negotiator

JERUSALEM, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Israel's chief negotiator Tzipi Livni on Wednesday accused the Palestinians of breaking their commitments to the United States and Israel with their plan to sign international conventions, local media reported.

"Approaching these conventions is a break of a commitment ... If they (the Palestinians) want a state, they should realize that the way to do it is through negotiations," Livni said.

Earlier on Tuesday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he will sign a request to join 15 UN agencies and international treaties in response to Israel's delay to release a group of 26 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel approved the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners in July last year amid the resumption of the peace talks. Seventy- eight prisoners have been released so far.

The remaining 26 prisoners were supposed to be released Saturday. But Israel delayed the release indefinitely after the right-wing ministers' objection to free 14 Israeli Arab prisoners of the group.

On Monday U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a surprise visit to Israel to salvage the Israeli-Palestinian talks. His offering to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was that the United States would release American Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who spent nearly 30 years in jail over espionage charges.

In exchange, Israel agreed to release, other than the last group of Palestinian prisoners, an extra 400 prisoners and partially halt the settlement construction, in order to extend the peace talks beyond the April 29 deadline and to prevent Abbas from making unilateral moves toward the United Nations.

On Tuesday Israel's land authority released tenders for the construction of 700 housing units in east Jerusalem, a territory annexed by Israel in 1967.