Abbas says independent Palestine must be in 1967 borders

Abbas says independent Palestine must be in 1967 borders

AFP
Date: 01-10-05

ROME (AFP) - Newly-elected Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas repeated the Palestinians' claim for an independent state with its borders as in 1967 and with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Abbas said in an interview published in the Corriere della Sera here Monday that he was ready to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at any time to discuss ways to bring about peace in the Middle East.

"It is our duty to find a solution to this conflict," he said. "We cannot find it without talking to each other and without engaging in negotiations which will certainly be hard, but in the end will have to reach an accord."

But Abbas said the Palestinians could not accept an agreement that gave them less than a state on the land which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and with east Jerusalem as its capital.

"We cannot accept an agreement which does not offer a fair and negotiated solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees," who fled their homes when Israel was created in 1948.

"These principles were expressed openly and clearly by US President George W. Bush when he explained his vision of peace in the Middle East," Abbas said.

"The inheritance which Yasser Arafat has left is to be tough negotiators on the one hand and moderate pragmatists on the other," Abbas said, referring to his predecessor, the veteran Palestinian leader who died in November.

Asked about the international peace plan known as the roadmap, Abbas said it still existed, even though it had been sidelined by Sharon's plan to end Israel's presence in the Gaza Strip, while hanging on to parts of the West Bank and to east Jerusalem.

"The Palestinian leadership has accepted the roadmap and is still prepared to be put it into effect. We would like Israel to do the same," he said.

Abbas was speaking to the Corriere della Sera before official results declared him the winner of Sunday's election with more than 62 percent of the votes cast.

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