Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Monday said Israel's settlements activities would be the major obstacle challenging the Middle East peace process.
Abbas told a joint news conference with German Foreign MinisterFrank-Walter Steinmeier in Ramallah that "settlements activities in the West Bank and around Jerusalem are the major obstacle that challenges the peace process."
"We can't accept such measures carried out by the Israeli government. We believe it would be an obstacle for achieving peace, and we told the world that continuing settlements would disable us to reach any agreement," said Abbas.
He said that he would meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and they would discuss the settlements' expansion in the West Bank, mainly in and around Jerusalem. The issue of prisoners would be discussed, too.
Abbas also noted he welcomes any international or Arab efforts to reach an agreement with Hamas movement that took control of the Gaza Strip by force about one year ago.
"The efforts for reaching a truce in Gaza are a little bit complicated, but we hope that we will be able to reach a positive result because the situation in the Gaza Strip is tragic and this situation must end soon," Abbas said before leaving for Jerusalem.
Steinmeier, for his part, said a conference will be held on June 24 in Berlin to support the Palestinian police forces, adding that "the conference would focus on enforcing the police and the law in the Palestinian territories."
"I hope that a permanent peace agreement will be reached very soon," Steinmeier stressed, calling on all parties to exert every possible effort to reach an agreement and work on stopping settlements activities.
Asked about the Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations, Steinmeier told reporters "we have to support these talks," adding "there will be no competition between the Israeli-Syrian talks and the Israeli-Palestinian talks."
Source:Xinhua
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