Occupation destroys chance of peace with Israel, says Abbas
Palestinians carry an injured demonstrator after Israeli soldiers threw tear gas during a protest against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Friday in the village of Burin, near Nablus.Photo: AFP
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas warned Friday that the occupation of Palestinian land destroys all chance of peace with Israel.
"I warn that that policy of illegal colonisation and the construction of the annexation and separation wall pursued by Israel, the occupation force, destroys all chance of restarting the peace process," Abbas told the United Nations General Assembly.
Settlement construction, which Israel has refused to freeze despite pressure from the international community, is the main stumbling block in attempts to restart Middle East peace talks that have been on hold since Israel launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip in December 2008.
US President Barack Obama on Tuesday held his first three-way meeting with both Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to restart talks, but failed to achieve a breakthrough.
During the meeting, Obama largely set aside the row over settlement issues aside and called for a speedy return to final status negotiations between the two sides, which delve into the fate of Jerusalem, Israeli security, Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future Palestinian state.
"Time is short and the risks are accumulating because of the continued suffering of the Palestinian people, who are weighed down by the last foreign occupation in the world," Abbas said.
"We call on the world to ensure that international law prevails and to put pressure on Israel until it stops all its settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem."
The Palestinian Liberation Organisation, which Abbas heads, is "the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people to achieve a just and lasting peace based on international resolutions," he said in a shot at the Islamic movement Hamas.
He also called for the lifting of an Israeli blockade imposed on Hamas-ruled Gaza, and denounced Israel's "devastating aggression," which lasted 22 days and killed over 1,300 Palestinians in the impoverished coastal enclave.
The Palestinian leader also emphasised that continued settlements "will obliterate" any agreement ending the conflict and creating two states living side by side, as called for by the international community.
"How can we imagine holding negotiations on borders and Jerusalem while Israeli bulldozers create facts on the ground to impose the borders that Israel wants?" Abbas quipped.
He praised Obama's speech to the General Assembly on Wednesday, in which the US president said his country would not "accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements" and called for final status negotiations to put an end to the "occupation that started in 1967."
"Respect for these bases, including a total freeze on settlement, is likely to save the peace process and improve the chances of our success," said Abbas.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa meanwhile called on the Obama administration to "define the parameters or a fixed final framework" for the peace process and to gauge the seriousness of the parties.
"If such a framework is defined, Israel will be the first to reject it because it does not want to restore the (occupied) territories or stop the occupation," he added.
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