Abbas: Hamas truce continues
Photo: AFP
Abbas asks US to accept Quartet decision
Palestinian leader wants US to refrain from vetoing Mideast Quartet's decision on UN statehood bid
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked the US on Saturday to refrain from vetoing a decision by the other members of the Mideast Quartet – the UN, Russia, and the EU – on the Palestinian declaration of statehood, set to take place at the UN General Assembly in September.
The president said a new French initiative presented by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe calls for an end to settlement activity, and Israel was therefore against it.
Abbas also called on the Quartet, scheduled to meet June 11, to send out a clear message regarding peace talks based on the 1967 lines.
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"We can't have three states agree on something, and then the US comes and vetoes it," Abbas told Palestine Radio.
The leader added that without negotiations, the Palestinians would carry out their plan at the UN. But he stressed that his government's first choice was peace talks.
"If the negotiations don't succeed, we will go to the UN in order to complain before the world that the Palestinian people are the only ones in the world living under occupation," he said.
Abbas also denied that a reconciliation deal with Hamas had petered out. In contrary to recent reports from Hamas, which say the two factions are fighting over a vetting process for members of a unity government, Abbas says the government will be made up of independent representatives.
"We have not given up. We are determined to continue with the reconciliation and establishment of a government, because we want to go to the UN unified," he said.
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