Abbas: Peace settlement with Israel possible 'within six months'

Abbas attends a meeting with Indian ForeignMinister Pranab Mukherjee in New York[Ma'anImages]

28 September 2007

Bethlehem – Ma'an – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says the peace summit to be held in the United States in November will lay the groundwork for the formation of a peace treaty with Israel within six months.

Speaking to Agence France-Presse on Friday Abbas said, "The meeting in November should define the principles settling the questions over the final status [of the Palestinian territories]."

"Then we will begin negotiations on the details under a timeframe, which ought not to exceed six months, to reach a peace treaty," he continued.

Abbas said the opening date of the US-sponsored conference will be November 15. The Associated Press reported Friday that the location of the summit will be Annapolis, Maryland, home to the US Naval Academy.

In choosing Annapolis, US officials hoped to avoid both the "high expectations and bad memories" of previous peace negotiations, such as those held at the Camp David presidential retreat, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. The collapse of the Camp David talks contributed to the causes of the second Intifada.

Abbas now appears determined to go ahead with the conference after expressing frustration at American and Israeli equivocation about the nature and goals of the conference.

"We want to prepare a framework agreement defining clear principles and without equivocation that will serve as a basis for the settlement. Immediately after the meeting we will hold negotiations on the basis of this document," Abbas said.

The guest list for the summit remains to be set, and key regional players such as US allies Saudi Arabia and Egypt have threatened to boycott the conference if the agenda does not include the "final status issues": the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state, and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

In contrast to Abbas' demand for final status negotiations Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has called for talks resulting in a nonbinding "joint declaration." With his announcement Friday, Abbas' seems to be looking to use a potential declaration as leverage to call for more substantive negotiations.

Hamas has called on the Arab states to boycott the conference on the grounds that a peace settlement in the current situation would be illegitimate for it's exclusion of the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.