Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas has stated that President Obama is doing nothing to revive the 'peace process' between Israel and the Palestinians.

"For now he is doing nothing, but he has invited us to revive the peace process. I hope that in the future he can play a more important role," Abbas said in an interview with the Argentine daily Clarin on Tuesday during a visit to Argentina.

“The Palestinians expect the US to exert pressure on Israel to get it to show respect for international law and implement the Road Map plan. They can exert pressure on Israel so as to do two things; halting settlement activities and withdrawal from the Palestinian territories they occupied in 1967,” he further explained.

For her part, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez criticized Washington for doing too little to restart the 'peace talks' that were broken off in December 2008, when Israel launched a war on the Gaza Strip, which killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians.

Last week, Israel gave its approval for the construction of hundreds of new housing units in the illegally annexed East Jerusalem Al-Quds, drawing international criticism as it drove another stake into the heart of efforts to restart the so-called peace process.

Under the 2002 Roadmap for the 'Peace plan' brokered by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia, Israel has to dismantle settlement outposts erected since 2001 and also freeze all settlement activities.

There are currently 121 Israeli settlements and approximately 102 Israeli outposts built illegally on Palestinian land occupied by Israel in 1967. All of these settlements and outposts are illegal under the international law and have been condemned by numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions.

These settlements and outposts are inhabited by a population of 462,000 Israeli settlers. Some 191,000 Israelis are living in settlements around Jerusalem Al-Quds and an additional 271,400 are spread throughout the West Bank.

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