Ramallah : In the first official reaction to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement that he opposes a Palestinian state, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that these remarks “are worrying.”
Abbas made the statements on Thursday during a Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee meeting he chaired in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Xinhua reported, citing state-run Wafa news service.
“What Netanyahu said about the two-state principle no longer being an option and that he opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state is not new, but is extremely worrying,” Abbas informed the PLO executive members.
He said that if what Netanyahu said was true, “this means that the coming Israeli government doesn’t have any intentions for a political solution that leads to establishing a Palestinian state on 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital”.
“We won’t change our position, which is demanding an implementation of the international resolutions, and also it is our right to apply and head to any place in the world to gain the international legitimacy,” said Abbas.
A few hours before announcement of the exit polls of the parliamentary elections held in Israel on Tuesday, Netanyahu declared that there woulkd be no Palestinian state if he won the elections.
Netanyahu’s right wing Likud party earned 30 seats in the parliament, where observers expect that he would be able to form a fully right wing Israeli government.