RAMALLAH, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that Israel's continuing settlement activity hinders the relaunch of a serious peace process that can end the country's occupation, official news agency WAFA reported.
"The continuation of settlement activity, killings, demolitions, incursions and arrests of Palestinians puts obstacles in the path of restarting a serious peace process," Abbas said at a meeting with U.S. group Jewish Reform in his office in Ramallah.
The president also stressed the Palestinian commitment to just and comprehensive peace based on international legitimacy, the two-state solution and the 2012 Arab Peace initiative to establish an independent Palestinian state with the borders of 1967 and east Jerusalem as its capital.
The U.S. group asserted its full support of the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Israeli settlement activity is considered a main obstacle to the peace process, it said.