Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said that a peace agreement with Israel can be reached within one year, Xinhua reported.
"One year is very long," Abbas said in an interview with the Ramallah-based Al-Ayyam newspaper in Washington where he will participate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Before the negotiations stopped in December 2008, "prolonged discussions and negotiations" had occurred and involved all final- status issues "so we should build on the results of these talks instead of starting from zero," said Abbas.
In the talks that will start on Thursday, "it is time for decisions, not negotiations," said Abbas, urging Israel "to respect" the results of the talks that were reached with its previous government "and move to the future."
On Tuesday, U.S. Middle East special envoy George Mitchell, who had led the four-month indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians, said that a peace deal was possible in one year.
The Palestinian leadership accepted the U.S. invitation to resume direct negotiations with Israel as the Quartet, which comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, issued a statement reiterating their commitment to help creating a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel through negotiations.
On Wednesday, Abbas will hold separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama, said Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rdineh, in an interview with Voice of Palestine radio.
It will be the first face-to-face meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu since the latter took office in April 2009, three months after the end of Israel's military operation in Gaza, which caused the direct talks to stop at the time.
Abbas will also meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a day after he met with King Abdullah II of Jordan, who are all attending the launching of the new round of talks, said Rdineh.
Meanwhile, Abbas said the Palestinians are ready to accept the implementation of the peace agreement in phases "within a reasonable period."
"We don't have an objection to apply the deal in two, three or four phases," Abbas said, noting that Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, which was reached in Camp David in 1979, was enforced through three stages.
He also urged Israel to renew a moratorium on settlement constructions in the West Bank that ends later this month in order to let the talks be "serious."
Abbas: peace deal possible within one year
