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Photo: Reuters
'Pressure needed.' Abu Rudeina
Photo: Reuters
'We can achieve peace.' Netanyahu
Photo: Gil Yohanan

Palestinians: US must press Netanyahu government

Abbas spokesman says new Israeli PM's speech 'not promising'; urges Obama administration to make certain Israel 'abides by land for peace principle'

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday night that the speech delivered by incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the induction of his new government "was not a promising start, as he did not mention our right to an independent state."

 

Nabil Abu Rudeina said "Netanyahu's statements were vague, and he did not publically recognize a Palestinian state and did not speak of the need to freeze settlement construction.

 

"What is required now is intense American pressure on the Israeli government to respect the peace process and past agreements, and particularly the 'land for peace' principle. By 'land' we mean all of the territory seized by Israel in 1967, including east Jerusalem," the spokesman said.

 

In his speech Netanyahu called on the Palestinian Authority to embrace peace: "If it is really peace that you seek – we can achieve it. We will advance (the negotiations) in three avenues, the financial one, the security one and the diplomatic one… we will support a Palestinian mechanism which will fight terror. We have no desire to rule over another people. The final (peace) agreement will enable the Palestinians to rule over themselves, with the exception of what may threaten Israel.

 

However, the new prime minister added that "past efforts to find shortcuts have only produced the opposite results – more terror and more bloodshed. We will pursue a realistic route with the honest purpose of ending the conflict."

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.01.09, 00:04
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