Saturday, April 24, 2010

'No temporary Palestinian state'


ASSOCIATED PRESS AND JPOST.COM STAFF
24/04/2010

Abbas reportedly turns down Netanyahu's offer of 60% of W. Bank.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has officially rejected an offer by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to demarcate temporary borders for a sovereign Palestinian state on more than 60 percent of the West Bank, Al-Hayat reported on Saturday, citing Palestinian sources.

According to the report, Abbas said Netanyahu's overture was aimed at jump-starting negotiations by agreeing to the creation of a Palestinian while blurring the specifications of the future state's borders. The offer, the sources told the UK-based Arab paper, was a “trap” which would “drag” Abbas into negotiations that delved deep into controversial regional issues without compromising Netanyahu's insistence on continuing Jewish construction in east Jerusalem. For that reason, the sources reportedly said, Abbas would not accept this latest Israeli offer.

The paper further reported that President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Barak had phoned Abbas to try and convince him to accept the proposal.

Abbas, however, told leaders of the Fatah movement on Saturday that he rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state in temporary borders, in an apparent response to media reports that Israel was trying to revive the proposal.

Instead, Abbas suggested that Israel and the Palestinians resume serious negotiations on the terms of full Palestinian statehood, adding that such talks should wrap up within two years.

To continue reading the entire article please click on the hot link: J Post

No comments: