Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, stated Monday that the Palestinian leadership will not surrender to Hamas’ rejection to the Egyptian mediated unity offer, and added that he would meet his Egyptian counterpart on Tuesday to hold talks on the issue.During a press conference in Ramallah with the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Javier Solana, Abbas stated that Fateh movement went to Cairo to sign a unity deal, but Hamas refused to sign.
“We now need to measure future steps”, Abbas added, “We are willing to sign a unity deal, and we expressed that clearly”.
Commenting on Israeli reports regarding an Israeli-American agreement on settlements, Abbas said that the Palestinian Authority did not receive any official note in this regard.
“We do not receive our information from the press”, Abbas added, “We will wait for an official American response”.
The Palestinian President also informed Solana on his recent New York meeting with the American leadership, and added that the resumption of the peace process depends on Israel halting all of its settlement activities.
He added that the peace process should have a clear agenda based on the international legitimacy and all related resolutions.
Meanwhile, Solana said that the EU has strong relations with the Palestinian Authority and that he came here to exchange ideas and opinions to ensure the resumption of the peace process.
“I came here to express support to president Abbas”, Solana said, “We will not hesitate in supporting Abbas, especially under the current circumstances”.
