© Voice of Russia
"We are no longer travelling tomorrow. We are in close touch with the team on the ground," the official said.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas signed a request to join several UN agencies on Tuesday, in a move that could derail a US push to revive faltering peace talks with Israel. The demands for membership will be sent immediately to the relevant agencies, he said.
"The Palestinian leadership has unanimously approved a decision to seek membership of 15 UN agencies and international treaties, beginning with the Fourth Geneva Convention," Abbas made a statement after signing the demand during a meeting at his Ramallah headquarters.
"This is not a move against America or any other party; it is our right, and we agreed to suspend it for nine months," said Abbas.
The Palestinians agreed to refrain from seeking membership of international bodies and from pursuing legal action against Israel during the nine months of talks that US Secretary of State John Kerry launched in July.
In return, Israel agreed to release 104 long-serving Palestinian prisoners.
But Israel has refused to release the final batch of 26 prisoners, using it as a bargaining chip to try and extend talks beyond their April 29 deadline.
The Palestinians have also repeatedly threatened to resume their action through international courts and the UN over Israel's settlement expansion on occupied territory in the West Bank and in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
Israel on Tuesday reissued tenders for hundreds of settler homes in the east Jerusalem settlement neighborhood of Gilo, on top of the thousands of new homes it has announced since July.
Prior to Abbas' announcement, Kerry had been due back in the region for a meeting with the Palestinian president on Wednesday, after a whirlwind visit on Monday and Tuesday.
US Kerry meets Israeli Netanyahu in a bid to revive stalled peace talks
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, met Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for the second time in less than 12 hours on Tuesday in an effort salvage stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. There was no immediate report of any breakthrough and a Palestinian official said Kerry might return to the region once again later, on Wednesday, to hold a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The negotiations appeared on the brink of collapse at the weekend, when Israel failed to press ahead with a promised release of several dozen Palestinian prisoners.
Israel wanted assurances the Palestinians would not abandon the talks, aimed at ending the generations-old Middle East conflict, when an initial deadline for an accord expires on April 29.
US officials have said that a deal allowing negotiations to continue could include the release of Jonathan Pollard, who is serving a life sentence in the United States for spying for Israel.
A freeze on construction in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, land Palestinians want with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem for a state, was also being discussed, Reuters news agency reports.
Sources close to the talks said that under the proposed arrangement, Pollard would be freed before the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins in two weeks' time.
Israel, they said, would go ahead with the promised release of a fourth group of Palestinians, the last among the 104 it pledged to free as a confidence building measure under an agreement that led to the renewal of the talks in July.
US intelligence agencies have long opposed any early release of Pollard, who pleaded guilty in 1987 to charges of spying for Israel and American officials said no decision on his release has yet been made.
Kerry, who has visited the region more than 10 times this year only as he strives to secure a peace deal, held talks separately upon his arrival in Jerusalem with Netanyahu and with Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat.
The focus of his mission appeared to have shifted from reaching an elusive framework agreement by April 29, including general principles for a final peace accord, to simply keeping both sides talking beyond that previously set deadline.
Look, this charade is more than tiring to watch, it is downright obscene.
What remains unacknowledged and under-appreciated is the fact that Palestine was taken by force to begin with!