President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that Israel must honor agreements on borders and Jerusalem which he says its government made in 2008 talks with the Palestinians if stalled peace negotiations are to resume, Reuters reported.
Speaking after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Abbas also repeated Palestinian insistence that Israel halt settlement building in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.
In a prepared statement made available to reporters, Abbas said: "In today's meetings we confirmed our positions and commitment to the road map and its implementation. We also demanded that the Israeli side fulfill its commitments on settlements, including on natural growth.
"As for resuming talks, this depends on a definition of the negotiating process that means basing them on recognizing the need to withdraw to the 1967 borders and ending the occupation, as was discussed with the previous Israeli government when we defined the occupied territories as the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.
"This was reiterated in the talks with President Obama and in the trilateral talks. We believe the American administration will review the positions of the two sides in the coming weeks to make it possible for us to renew peace talks based on our stated position."
Officials and diplomats have said that Netanyahu's centrist predecessor Ehud Olmert last year discussed land swaps with Abbas that would have given Palestinians close to the full amount of territory Israel captured in 1967 and also spoke about dividing control of the city of Jerusalem with the Palestinians.
However, no clear agreements were ever published before talks were suspended in December. Netanyahu, a right-winger who took office in March, has made clear he does wish to repeat any such offers that Olmert may have made.
"We are certainly not obligated to the positions of the previous government," Netanyahu said in New York.
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