Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that negotiations with Israel should result in an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, Xinhua reported.
His remarks came from a meeting with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who serves as the international envoy to Israel and the Palestinians.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Abbas and Blair discussed the Jewish settlement building in the West Bank, which caused U.S.-brokered peace talks to stop in September.
Abbas said the negotiations must lead to an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Palestinians seek to gain international recognition of their future state and have started to drum up support from Latin American, Arab and African countries for vote in the United Nations.
Israel and Washington oppose what they call Palestinian attempts to gain independence unilaterally, insisting that the Palestinian state should come through negotiated agreements.
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