Abbas waiting for Israeli reaction to future of peace talks.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he is still waiting to the hear what the Israeli authorities have to say regarding the future of the peace talks and if there are any new developments, the Jordanian daily AL RAI reported Tuesday. U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is currently brokering indirect peace talks. Abbas told reporters during a visit to Ramallah that if he received answers from the Israelis then this would be considered "a very good thing". He explained that Israel's reply "would motivate us to move straightforward with direct negotiations." Mitchell is expected to arrive shortly in the region to resume the indirect negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians which started in May 2010 in an attempt to reach peace between the two sides, the daily reported.Senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat told the Beirut daily AN NAHAR Monday that "the Palestinian authority would be deemed useless if it was not able to establish a Palestinian state." He said that "No one should underestimate what the U.S. administration is trying to achieve," according to AL RAI. Erekat revealed that the Palestinian Authority will turn to the United Nations Security Council in September in order to call for a resolution that acknowledges the existence of the Palestinian state along the 1967 borders that existed prior to the Arab-Israeli war which broke out on June 5, 1967. The Arab-Israeli war was fought by Israel against Jordan, Syria and Egypt. It was called the six-day war during which Israeli forces were able to seize the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.
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| Title Annotation: | MIDDLE EAST-PEACE |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Daily Middle East Reporter (Beirut, Lebanon) |
| Date: | Jun 30, 2010 |
| Words: | 270 |
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