Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, said on Wednesday that the Israeli elections will not make any difference to the Palestinians if the acting Prime Minister in Israel, Ehud Olmert, does not change his stances and policies regarding the occupied territories.
Talking to reporters in the Sudanese capital while participating in the annual Arab summit, Abbas said that Olmert should quit his talks about unilateral moves without negotiating with the Palestinians.
Abbas stated that Olmert should quit the plan to draw Israel’s borders without negotiating with the Palestinians, and to end the strict closure enforced on the occupied territories.
“Israel is planning to impose unilateral solutions, and to annex more than half of the West Bank”, Abbas stated, “Israel continued its closure, siege, and transformed the occupied territories into isolated ghettoes”.
Abbas added that the Israeli procedures of separation, isolation, attacks, and the economical siege, contradict with the decisions of the international community, and the signed agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
Meanwhile, the Syrian foreign minister, Waleed Al Mu’allem, said that the victory of Kadima party in the Israeli elections was expected but the most important issue is path Kadima will take and the kind of coalition it makes.
“Israel has repeatedly obstructed the peace process”, Al Mu’allem stated, “Since the peace talks started in Madrid in 1991, all ruling parties in Israel kept obstructing it”.
Arab League’s secretary-general, Amr Mousa, said that the Arab countries will not agree to any solution that excludes Jerusalem, or any unilateral procedures.
Mousa added that most of the Arab leaders believe that Israel does not have any peace proposal to offer, and that it continued its expansion activities in the occupied West Bank.
During the election campaign, Olmert said that Israel will not evacuate the large settlement blocs in the West Bank, and will impose unilateral solutions on the Palestinians without recognizing the international resolutions regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The Arab summit, which ends it activities on Wednesday, renewed its offer to achieve peace with Israel if it evacuates from all of the occupied territories since 1967; Israel rejected the offer.
The Arab leaders rejected the unilateral procedures Israel intends to make in the West Bank, and called on Israel to return to the multilateral negotiation table under international supervision.
