Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Abed-Rabbo, stated that there are certain ideas about arranging a meeting between Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, but stressed that such a meeting must carry serious Israeli commitments to halt its violations.The official added that Israel does not want a progress on the political and practical levels; therefore, a meeting under the current circumstances would not helpful.
Abed-Rabbo said that the official stance of president Abbas is that the resumption of talks requires practical Israeli measures and commitments, especially regarding Israel’s illegal settlement construction and expansion in the West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem.
“Some parties are contacting us, there are attempts to reduce tension, and create a positive atmosphere”, the official said, “We fear that these efforts are only meant to contain a potential crisis instead of pushing the peace process forwards”.
He further stated that the White House is acting on preventing the Palestinians from heading to the United Nations to demand their international guaranteed rights of liberty and independence.
Abed-Rabbo said that the stances of the European Union, and European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, are positive as the EU realizes the threats Israel’s settlements are posing on the final status solution, and the establishment of the Palestinian state.
Commenting on statements made by Fathi Hammad, a senior political leader of the Hamas movement, who said that “there can be no reconciliation of secularism”, Abed-Rabbo said that such statements are “radical hallucinations” carried out in an “attempt to divide the Palestinian people into two sectors; religious and secular”, and added that such statements “are meant at regarding any person, who does not support the ideology of Hamas, as an infidel”, the Arabs48 news website reported.
