RAMALLAH
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday there will be no peace with Israel unless Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) becomes the capital of the Palestinian state.
"There can be no peace between us and them [the Israelis] without Al-Quds," Abbas told hundreds of Palestinians who converged on the Palestinian Authority HQ in Ramallah from Al-Quds.
He said the Palestinians are ready to keep waiting until they manage to fulfill their dream of establishing their own state on the pre-1967 borders.
Abbas said he was ready to make reconciliation with Hamas, which rules Gaza, and form a government of bureaucrats under previous agreements signed in Cairo and Doha between his Fatah movement and Hamas.
"Hamas says Israel puts pressure on Abbas and that Abbas makes negotiations [with the Israelis]," Abbas said. "To them I say, reconciliation comes first before negotiations," he added.
He said the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails has nothing to do with Israeli settlement policies, describing the settlement building as an "illegitimate" activity.
"If they [the Israeli government] decided to link the prisoners release to settlements, we will not be bound by any commitments we made before," he said.
He said the Palestinian Authority will not accept any extension of a nine-month deadline for peace negotiations with the Israelis.
Abbas reiterated rejection of recognizing the Jewishness of Israel, adding that the Palestinians cannot give up the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
He said a Palestinian delegation is now in Syria to discuss means of allowing humanitarian aid into Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus.
He said the Palestinians decided to take an objective stance toward the conflict in Syria from the very beginning, but that some "paid people" had pushed the camp into the conflict.
Around 36 Palestinians starved to death inside Yarmouk refugee camp, which has been besieged by President Bashar al-Assad's forces for 171 days now, according to the Action Group for the Palestinians of Syria.
As many as 20,000 Palestinians are under siege inside the camp, lacking food and medicines.
by Qais Abu Samra
englishnews@aa.com.tr
