By Qais Abu Samra
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has received an invitation to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House in March, according to a senior Palestinian official.
The meeting comes as part of Washington's efforts to push the Palestinian-Israeli peace process forwards, the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Anadolu Agency.
He stopped short, however, of clarifying when the invitation was received or give a date for the meeting.
Abbas met last week with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris.
His spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeinah told the official news agency, Wafa, that the Palestinian leader reiterated during the meeting that the Palestinian Authority would not compromise on longstanding Palestinian stances in the course of the ongoing peace talks with Israel.
"We will not recognize a 'Jewish state,' nor will we approve illegal [Jewish-only] settlements. We are committed to achieving a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with Al-Quds [occupied east Jerusalem] as its capital," he quoted Abbas as having told Kerry.
US-brokered peace talks between Israel and Palestine resumed in Washington last summer after a nearly three-year pause.
Kerry, during his visit to the region last month, presented both sides with a proposed framework for an eventual peace agreement that addresses final status issues – namely, borders, security, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Al-Quds.
About 500,000 Israelis now live in more than one hundred Jewish-only settlements built since Israel occupied the West Bank and Al-Quds in 1967.
The Palestinians want these areas, along with the Gaza Strip, to establish their future state.
Palestinians insist that the issue of Israeli settlement-building must be addressed before a comprehensive final-status agreement can be reached.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
