Abbas in Damascus: No negotiations while settlements expand
Date: 21 / 06 / 2009 Time: 19:07
www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=38718

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on
Saturday evening that he will not negotiate with Israel until all settlement
activity is put to a halt.

Abbas met with the exiled Secretary-General of the leftist Democratic Front
for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), Nayef Hawatmeh, in Damascus. After
the meeting, the two issued a declaration of their rejection of settlements.
They also agreed that Abbas' recent meeting with US President Barack Obama
in Washington was a "positive step" toward achieving Palestinians' rights in
the context of an independent state.

In their statement, Abbas and Hawatmeh also said that Israeli Prime Minster
Benjamin Netanyahu's policy speech failed to respond to international
resolutions, or to Palestinian, Arab and international calls to end
settlements. They also said the speech ignored Israel's occupation of the
Syrian Golan Heights and Sheb'a, the small area of Lebanon still occupied by
Israel.

Abbas was in Damascus in a push to coordinate Arab responses to Netanyahu's
speech last Sunday. In the speech, Netanyahu said he wants peace, but laid
down harsh conditions for talks, and rejected a freeze on settlement
construction.

Abbas and Hawatmeh also asserted that national dialogue and new
parliamentary and presidential elections based on proportional
representation is the way to build Palestinian national unity, both in
Palestine and in the Diaspora.

The two also pointed to the Palestinian national dialogue session on 7 July
as a key step toward unity.

While in the Syrian capital, Abbas had no apparent plans to meet the exiled
leaders of Hamas, his main rival in Palestinian politics, who reside in
Damascus.