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No open-ended talks with Israel: Abbas

Israel Materials 28 May 2016 22:09 (UTC +04:00)
The Palestinian president has rejected the idea of open-ended talks with Israel, saying any future negotiations with the regime in Tel Aviv should have a time cap
No open-ended talks with Israel: Abbas

The Palestinian president has rejected the idea of open-ended talks with Israel, saying any future negotiations with the regime in Tel Aviv should have a time cap, Press TV reported.

Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that if an upcoming Paris conference succeeds in re-launching the long-stalled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, it must include mechanisms for the proper implementation of its potential resolutions.

Abbas, who was speaking to Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, called for a monitoring committee to be formed in the June 3 Paris gathering to oversee the possible agreements in the talks.

The Palestinian leader and allies in the occupied West Bank have welcomed France's initiative to hold an international conference, which aims to kick-start a new round of so-called peace talks between Israel and Palestinians more than two years after the two sides left the negotiating table.

The Tel Aviv regime, has, however, rejected the French initiative, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeating his previous statements about the need for direct negotiations without preconditions which, he says, are the only way to reach a final settlement with the Palestinians.

Israel's continuous defiance of international calls for pulling out of the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) is viewed as a major reason behind the failure of previous initiatives.

The latest round of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, which was organized by the United States, collapsed in 2014. US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to attend the Paris meeting along with foreign ministers from more than two dozen countries.

Abbas further said a future Palestinian state must have East al-Quds as its capital, and that it should be established within the borders that had existed before the 1967 Middle East War.

Israel captured the East al-Quds and the West Bank during that war, and has continued ever since to expand its settlements on those occupied territories despite an international ban on the issue.

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