Wed, August 08, 2012
RAMALLAH, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's comments against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas angered the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Wednesday.
Nabil Abu Rdineh, a PNA spokesman, said the Israeli foreign minister's statements "reveal the mentality of killing peace and fueling conflict."
Israel's Jerusalem Post quoted Lieberman on Tuesday as saying that the main obstacle to peace lays within the Abbas leadership. He added during a meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr that "There will be no diplomatic progress or agreement with the Palestinians as long as Abbas is in power."
Abu Rdineh said as long as the likes of Lieberman hold top government positions, there can be no hope for peace based on the two-state solution on the 1967 borders.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been stalled since October 2010 as the PNA refuses to return to the negotiation table until Israel halts all settlement building on occupied lands.
Abbas and the PNA are now focusing on becoming a non-member state with voting right in the United Nations. They will submit the application to the UN General Assembly in September.
Israel has said that a successful Palestinian UN bid will not change matters on the ground, reiterating that bilateral negotiation with no preconditions is the only route to lasting peace.
