Nabil Abu Rdaineh, a spokesman for Abbas, told the official WAFA news agency that “President Abbas accepted and welcomes the plan since it agrees with the Palestinian ambitions.”

On Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe offered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a plan aimed at breaking the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock before the Palestinians seek recognition of their state at the UN General Assembly in September.

The French plan incorporates the position that the goal of negotiations is “two states for two peoples,” and not just “a two-state solution.”

Abu Rdaineh also said that Abbas welcomed Obama’s decision not to relocate the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

On Friday, Obama invoked US national security interests to notify Congress he will not move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The notification is necessary under a 1995 law that authorized the embassy's relocation but left the decision to presidents.