RAMALLAH
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday met with Japanese peace envoy to the Middle East Yutaka Uemura in Ramallah.
Abbas updated the Japanese envoy on the latest developments in the Middle East peace process, the official Wafa news agency reported.
Abbas underlined the commitment of the Palestinian side to achieving peace based on U.N. resolutions and establishing a Palestinian state with Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) as its capital.
Peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators – which resumed in Washington last July after a nearly three-year hiatus – collapsed last month after an April 29 deadline expired without a breakthrough.
The talks hit a snag one month earlier after Israel refused to release 26 Palestinian prisoners despite earlier pledges to do so. Abbas retaliated by formally applying for Palestinian membership in 15 U.N. conventions and agencies.
Israel has since announced a raft of punitive measures to be taken against the Palestinians after Abbas' Fatah movement last month signed a reconciliation deal with Gaza-based Hamas ending seven years of inter-Palestinian division.
Meanwhile, Abbas underlined the importance of a recent reconciliation deal between rival Fatah and Hamas groups in maintaining the unity of the Palestinian people.
Last month, Fatah and Hamas hammered out a reconciliation deal with a view to ending the rifts that have marred their relations since 2007.
The deal calls for the formation of a national unity government to serve until legislative elections are held in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
By Anees Barghouthi
englishnews@aa.com.tr
www.aa.com.tr/en
