Abbas: Without freeze extension, talks to end
Published today (updated) 06/09/2010 22:47
www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=313673

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian negotiators will continue with peace talks
through September but will quit if the settlement freeze is not continued,
President Mahmoud Abbas told Egypt's Al-Ayyam newspaper.

"This was made clear to [US] President [Barack] Obama and Secretary of State
[Hilary] Clinton and to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, and I
told him 'You have to know that if you don't continue with the settlement
halt, we will leave these negotiations'," Abbas was quoted as saying.

With the next round of talks set to take place in Egypt's resort town of
Sharm Ash-Sheikh, and all Arab partners in the talks facing continued
scrutiny at home following a perceived lack of progress following the first
talks in Washington, DC on 1-3 September, Abbas laid out the fears of
Palestinians:

"There is now a settlement freeze in place, and there is a fear that this
freeze will be canceled now that we have resumed talks; there is a fear that
settlements will resume construction everywhere. We say that if the
settlement freeze is continued, then we will continue the negotiations, but
if the freeze expires, then no one can force us to continue the talks."

When negotiations teams meet again alongside their US mediators, Abbas
explained, the issues of borders and security will be first on the table,
Al-Ayyam reported.

The primary issue in the first round of bilateral talks, he explained, was
to stress the fact that Palestinians were willing to engage in talks. As
talks continue, he explained to the Egyptian paper, "we have to start with
the borders and then security. The borders is basically what concerns us and
security is their [Israel's] concern."

Abbas said his approach to borders would begin with the 1967 lines and
demarcating a Palestinian state from there. "Once we have the borders set,
we can find a solution for Jerusalem, the water and the settlements," he
said, adding that the issue of refugees would be tackled in the next round.

Security, the president continued, would be straightforward for
Palestinians. "We will accept no Israeli civilian or military presence in
the Palestinian lands" as a final status end point, he explained.

"I told them that if they want assurances for their security we would accept
a third party presence for a limited period of time, like what happened in
the Sinai, we don't mind having a foreign presence on the condition that it
is not Israeli, be they Israeli Christians, Muslims or Druze; Israeli forces
mean a continued occupation and this we are against."

Addressing questions as to the role of the United States in the mediation of
the talks, Abbas said that "of course the US is biased towards Israel; they
have not been our allies since 1993, but we are working with American
mediators who say they are allies of Israel and we must deal with that
reality, we will not make compromises on our constants.

"I will not give up on any of the constants and if they ask me to make
concessions on the right of refugees or the 1967 borders, I will leave. I
will not accept it on myself to sign on one single concession," he
concluded.