PressTV - East al-Quds Palestine’s future capital: Abbas
Acting Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas says having East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the future capital of the Palestinian state is non-negotiable.
Abbas also threatened to go to the United Nations if the Israeli regime does not respect an earlier agreement to free Palestinian prisoners as a condition for holding peace talks, the Middle East Monitor publication reported on Friday.
"We will not compromise the 1967 borders as the future borders of our country Palestine, and there will be no peace without Jerusalem, as it is our capital," the PA chief said.
Abbas reiterated that the current talks between the PA and the Tel Aviv regime are based on recognizing the 1967 borders.
The fresh round of negotiations began in July to end the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the so-called two-state solution after a three-year hiatus.
In late July, Tel Aviv agreed to free 104 prisoners in four stages over the next several months as part of the agreement with the PA.
Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip and are demanding Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.
Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.
Meanwhile, the presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.
The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.
NT/MHB
