Palestine, April 25: Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas called on Saturday for an “open political dialogue” between Palestinian groups and both Israeli and Jewish organisations around the world.
“I call for an open political dialogue between Palestinian and Israeli forces, and we are ready to undertake them without exception,” Abbas told a meeting of the Revolutionary Council of his Fatah party.
Such talks would be based on the acceptance by both sides of a proposed Palestinian state living side by side with Israel, he said.
“We are ready to engage in a responsible dialogue, because we know that 84 percent of Israelis want peace … and that the large majority of Palestinians and Israelis want true peace,” he said.
Abbas’s made his call while the Palestinian Authority is refusing to resume peace talks with the Israeli government itself until such time as Tel Aviv freezes all illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday said that Israel wants an immediate resumption of talks.
Abbas has been invited to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington next month to discuss efforts to revive the peace process with Israel.
The invitation was delivered by Obama’s envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, who met Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.
“Mitchell invited president Abbas to visit the United States in May and he has responded positively to the invitation,” said Erakat, adding that the exact date of the talks has yet to be determined.
The two leaders were expected to discuss efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks suspended in December 2008 after the start of Israel’s massive military campaign against the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz meanwhile reported that indirect “proximity” talks between the two sides would resume no later than mid-May, citing unnamed officials involved in the peace efforts.
The daily said Obama has informed Abbas that he did not succeed in convincing Netanyahu to freeze illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem but that the premier would refrain from taking “significant” actions there during the talks.
It also said the negotiations would encompass all the core issues of the decades-old conflict, including occupied Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees and final borders.
—Agencies