Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of turning his back on peace and bonding with Hamas, according to KUNA.
This came after the speech Abbas gave before the foreign ministers of the Arab League in Cairo in which he outlined future Palestinian political plans and terms of resuming peace negotiations with Tel Aviv.
A statement by Netnayahu's office said that Abbas speech was a retreat from peace with Israel. To resume negotiations, Palestine requires freezing all settlement activities, including East Jerusalem, and the two-states resolution according to the 1967 borders, besides releasing Palestinian prisoners, especially those arrested before 1993, Abbas added in his speech.
In case Netanyahu refuses such conditions, the Palestinian Authority will revive its one-sided efforts to realize statehood at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), UN General Assembly, and also work to reactivate the Fourth Geneva Convention, Abbas said.
Netanyahu office statement sharply criticized Abbas' speech, accusing him of bonding with a terror group, and effectively embracing Iran, instead of engaging in negotiations that would bring an end to the conflict, Haaretz Israeli newspaper said.
The daily quoted a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem as saying, "Israel agreed in recent weeks to be more flexible and offered Abbas a package of serious gestures, but he decided to reject them, to again pose preconditions and to work toward reconciliation with Hamas." "We wanted to begin a long-term diplomatic process, but every time we get to the moment of truth, Abbas flees. It's a pattern with him," the daily quoted the official as saying.
