PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
PA Chairman Mahmoud AbbasFlash 90

The Palestinian Authority (PA) shot back on Thursday night that it is considering "all options" in response to the suspension of peace talks.

A security cabinet meeting on Thursday decided to suspend the talks following a unity deal reached between the PA and Hamas on Wednesday. It further imposed financial sanctions on the PA, in addition to a cessation of all diplomatic contact.

"The Palestinian leadership will look into all options to respond to Israeli government decisions against the PA," Chief Negotiator for the PA Saeb Erekat told AFP.

However, Erekat noted that the Hamas deal was more important to the PA than peace, saying "the priority now for the Palestinians is reconciliation and national unity."

Erekat further tried to blame Israel for the failure of the talks, saying "Netanyahu's government has been asked for years to choose between peace and settlements and it chose settlements."

It is worth noting that a construction freeze was not a condition of the peace talks, although Abbas on Tuesday demanded a three-month freeze on Judea and Samaria construction as a condition for talks to continue, threatening to disband the PA otherwise.

The talks have wound to a rocky conclusion before their April 29 deadline. The PA brought the talks to a dead-end by repeatedly refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish state, before torpedoing the talks at the start of the month by breaching conditions in a unilateral request to join 15 international conventions.

In response to the most recent action, the deal with terror group Hamas, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remarked "instead of choosing peace (PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas) formed an alliance with a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel."

"Whoever chooses the terrorism of Hamas doesn't want peace," declared Netanyahu.