Abbas: Israel will be responsible for any failure of talks

Palestinian President says if peace talks fail, Israel will be to blame, backs UN's demand that Israel stop settlement construction

AFP|Published: 10.22.13 , 22:34

Visiting the Lithuanian capital, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that Israel would be responsible for any failure of the peace talks.

"We will not accept that," Abbas said in response to a question of the Baltic news agency BNS on any future Israeli military control the borders of a demilitarized Palestinian state.

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"And if they (the negotiations) fail, they (the Israelis) will be the reason for this failure, not us," the Palestinian president added.

"They do not have the right to stay on our land after the signing of the peace treaty," Abbas said.

"They don't have the right to stay in our territories after we signed a peace treaty," he noted, stressing that he accepts a future demilitarized Palestinian state.

"We want, according to the Oslo Accords , a strong police force. This is exactly what we want, how we understand, how they understand, how the Americans understand it," the Palestinian leader said.

He also welcomed the European Union's call on Israel to stop building settlements.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite urged Israel on Monday to halt the development of settlements in the occupied territories."

After a meeting with Abbas in Vilnius, Grybauskaite stressed that " the European Union does not recognize the settlements as part of Israel ".

A new round of talks to Israeli-Palestinian peace was held Monday night in Jerusalem, focusing in the issue of water rights, a Palestinian official said Tuesday.