RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday resisted US pressure for a resumption of peace talks with Israel and reiterated his demand for a complete halt to West Bank settlement building before talks.
He offered no clarity over his own political future by saying he did not want to talk again about his declared wish not to run for a second term as president of the Palestinian Authority.
Addressing a rally to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, Abbas said that for peace talks to resume, Israel must recognize the terms of reference.
“We cannot go to negotiations without a framework. And we say the framework is UN resolutions, meaning a return to the 1967 borders,” Abbas said, referring to Israel’s borders on the eve of the conflict that changed the map of the Middle East.
“Also, we want a full stop to settlements, including natural growth in Jerusalem,” the 74-year-old leader said. “Without that, I won’t accept. I won’t accept,” he said, to cheers from a crowd of thousands waving a sea of flags.
“A Palestinian state is a truth recognized by the world, and we are now leading a battle to have its border recognized,” Abbas said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Abbas to begin talks without any conditions. That position is now supported by US President Barack Obama, who made a resumption of Middle East peace talks one of his priorities and at first also insisted on a prior freeze on Israeli settlements.
Netanyahu has ruled out going beyond a partial limitation on Jewish settlement building in areas of the occupied West Bank not annexed by Israel to its Jerusalem municipality.
Echoing Netanyahu’s speech on Monday to US Jewish leaders in Washington, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told the same forum on Tuesday that Israeli-Palestinian talks, suspended since December, should get under way “without preconditions.”
“No one should allow the issue of settlements to distract from the goal of a lasting peace between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world,” Emanuel said.
Palestinians say the settlements, which pepper the West Bank, destroy the possibility of setting up a viable state. Abbas said Israel was “disfiguring” the two-state solution. “They are putting obstacles in its way. They are trying to remove this concept. What do they want?” he said. Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Hamas, did not mark the event. Abbas greeted the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and called for unity. He pleaded with the participants of the rally to stop chanting slogans against Hamas and urged Hamas to accept the election results.
Nasser Al-Qidwah, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee and Arafat’s nephew, said that “Israel is responsible for the death of Arafat. We reiterate that he was poisoned to death.”
Abbas said his hand was extended for reconciliation with Hamas, urging it to sign an Egyptian proposal to end the division. “Instead of trying to eliminate each other, let us unite to face the occupation together,” he said.
— With input from agencies
