In interview with Israel’s Channel 2, PA President, Mahmoud Abbas says although he is a refugee from Safed, he supports a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders & the rest, is Israel.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been increasingly addressing Israeli public opinion ahead of the Palestinian United Nations independence bid and the upcoming Israeli elections.
Mahmoud Abbas addressing the Tunisian parliament on Monday – Photo by AFP
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 2, Abbas said that as long as he remains in power, he will not allow a third, armed intifada — or uprising — to break out.
Channel 2’s political correspondent Udi Segal, who interviewed Abbas, tweetted parts of the interview: “We will not go back to terrorism and violence,” Abbas was quoted as saying. “We will only operate through diplomacy and through peaceful means.”
During the interview, Abbas addressed accusations put forth by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his administration, who recently claimed that Abbas’s true objective is a state within the 1948 borders. Netanyahu’s advisers laid that claim following a post the PA President published on his Facebook page.
In the interview, Abbas said that although he is a refugee from Safed, he does not intend to return to the city as a resident – if anything, he would visit as a tourist. “Palestine for me is the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital, this is Palestine, I am a refugee, I live in Ramallah, the West Bank and Gaza is Palestine, everything else is Israel.”
In his Twitter account, Segal added that Abbas stressed that the Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad has not resigned, contrary to recent reports. “I spoke to him yesterday and he had no such intention,” Abbas said in the interview.
View original HAARETZ publication at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/pa-president-as-long-as-i-am-in-power-there-will-be-no-third-intifada-1.473852
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