The Palestinian leadership outlined a fresh strategy of defiance towards the United States last weekend by announcing its intention to consider a formal abandonment of the Middle East peace process.

ust days after Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate president of the Palestinian Authority, announced his intention to quit, his colleagues gave warning that they were prepared to deploy the much feared "nuclear option".

Officials in the West Bank told The Daily Telegraph that the most important Palestinian decision making bodies were preparing to meet to discuss a proposal to dissolve the Palestinian Authority itself.

Such a move would signal the end of limited self-government in the Palestinian territories set out by the now defunct Oslo Accords of 1993 and as such end all hopes of a resolution to the conflict with Israel.

Even so, some Palestinian officials signalled they were prepared to discuss the long-feared "nuclear option" in response to what they described as Israeli intransigence and American betrayal.

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