Abbas says ready to talk to pro-peace Israeli gov't

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday he is ready to engage in talks with any Israeli government that "believes in peace".

"We are ready to sit to the negotiation table and our hands are always extended to negotiate," Abbas said in a statements in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"We will not abandon our rights and will not accept the [U.S.-promoted] deal of the century," he said, referring to a back-channel for peace settlement between the Palestinians and Israel.

The terms of Washington's peace plan remain vague. However, according to recent speculations, Palestinian refugees will be asked to concede their right to return to historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

Abbas has strenuously rejected the U.S. plan, describing it as the “slap of the century”.

Ever since U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in late 2017, Abbas has ruled out any role for the U.S. in the stalled Palestine-Israel peace process.

"We are open [to talks] if [Israel] accepted UN resolutions for peace. If not, we are steadfast until we regain our rights," Abbas stressed.

Abbas' statements came as Israeli voters cast their ballot on Tuesday to elect members of the Knesset (Israel's parliament).

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud Party and Blue and White political alliance led by retired general Benny Gantz are the main rivals in the polls.

During his electoral campaign, Netanyahu vowed that “no single settler will be uprooted from the West Bank, which will remain under Israeli control, while Jerusalem will not be divided”.

U.S.-sponsored peace talks collapsed in 2014 over Israel's refusal to halt settlement building in the occupied West Bank.