Peres: Abbas - best Palestinian president ever
President calls on Mahmoud Abbas to resume negotiations with Israel 'openly and quietly despite disagreements.' Ayalon declares political success at UN
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "is the best president Israel could have gotten," President Shimon Peres said at a Rosh Hashana toast Monday.
Peres was addressing foreign ambassadors at his Jerusalem residence.
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He called on Abbas to resume negotiations with Israel. "I call on Abbas, the Palestinian president, whom I greatly respect and for whom I have sympathy - lets commence talks, openly and quietly, even if there are disagreements and criticism."
Peres warned that "the reality in our region has never been so dangerous" adding that "the situation today is the same as it ever was – we are in favor of a Palestinian state and two nation states. Nevertheless, it's important to translate this into reality. No more declarations."
No political tsunami
The president addressed the timetable set by the Quartet for the resumption of peace talks saying that "Negotiations should first be conducted quietly. In Oslo, we negotiated for four months without media involvement. Had it been publicized I don’t think an agreement would have been reached."
Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon, who also attended the ceremony, said that the Israeli delegation to the UN achieved political success.
He said that Israel expects negotiations without preconditions. "Our positions haven't changed, and our political success at the General Assembly is reflected in the fact that all those who predicted a political tsunami in September were proven false."
"If the Palestinians think they can establish a state at the UN General Assembly in New York, all power to them, but nothing has changed on the ground with the absence of a historic reconciliation, not only between leaders and governments, but between the peoples."
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