Abbas: Road Map, Saudi initiative to resolve refugee issue July 6, 2009
Ramallah – Ma’an
The issue of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 will be resolved through the US-backed Road Map and Saudi Peace Initiative, said President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday in Ramallah.
Speaking at the inauguration of a national park in Ramallah, Abbas added that the Saudi-backed Arab initiative “demands a just solution for the refugees in accordance with [UN] Resolution 194.”
“When they say this solution is not on the agenda, they do not want to discuss any of the final status issues, nor refugees, nor anything else,” the president said in an apparent reference to comments earlier Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who announced to his cabinet that the refugee issue would be solved “outside of Israel.”
“Refugee concerns are one of the final-status issues and since the Oslo accord was signed we all agreed that this issue should be raised within the Road Map, mainly within the Arab initiative,” the Abbas said.
Moving on to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the president said they “are illegitimate and should be removed, and when we say, ‘stop constructing them,’ we do not mean we accept the presence of previously constructed ones,” the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency Wafa quoted him as saying.
He added, “We support the US vision of two states and a halt to settlement practices, including natural growth; then we’ll go back to negotiations, and we think this attitude should continue until we accomplish the requirements of the Road Map.”
With regard to the national dialogue with Hamas, Abbas said, “We have instructed our delegation to approve any offer to get rid of this situation.” “They will work on making the dialogue succeed no matter what.”
The talks are planned to begin on 24 or 25 July, weeks after an Egyptian demand that all unity discussions conclude with an agreement by the 7th of the same month.
Regarding the supposedly upcoming Fatah conference, Abbas said, “I confirm that the Revolutionary Council’s decision will be implemented from top to bottom,” noting that “it will be held in Bethlehem on 4 August.”
LINK: http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=39035
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