By Xinhua
Ramallah : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, reportedly slated for Tuesday in Jerusalem, “hasn’t been 100 percent decided yet.”
Earlier identical Israeli and Palestinian reports said that Abbas and Olmert are to meet in Jerusalem to discuss the resumption of peace negotiations between the two sides.
“The meeting hasn’t been 100 percent decided. There are expectations that the meeting will be held on Tuesday,” Abbas told the state-run Palestine Satellite Television.
Abbas also said that in case the meeting “is held tomorrow (Tuesday), there are so many subjects would be presented for discussion, all are related to daily life issued such as crossing points, prisoners and other economical issues.”
He added that the subjects would include the issues of the Palestinian security apparatuses in the West Bank and the solution for 54 displaced Palestinians who are staying in the Palestinian territories without IDs or documents.
Asked about the U.S.-proposed Mideast peace conference slated for this fall, Abbas said that he had called U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and “I asked her three major questions and I’m waiting for answers.”
“When exactly the peace conference is going to be held? Who would attend the conference and what are the substances of the conference,” Abbas told the TV station.
Abbas said that Rice hasn’t answered his questions yet, adding that “it’s necessary for countries like Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt to attend the conference in order to activate the Arab Peace Initiative.”
On July 16, U.S. President George W. Bush proposed that an international conference would be held this fall, which would include Israel, the Palestinians, and some neighboring Arab states, to help resume the stalled Middle East peace talks.
The Arab peace initiative, first approved in 2002 and reactivated during an Arab summit in Riyadh this March, offers to extend recognition to Israel by all Arab countries provided that it withdraws from all Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 six-day war, including East Jerusalem.
Asked about the situation in Gaza and the Israeli threats to carry out a large-scale operation against rocket launchers, Abbas said “we would never accept attacking the Palestinian people because of what Hamas is doing there.”
“Hamas is fully responsible for its practices in the Gaza Strip. It repressed prayers and journalists, so the group which practiced repression on the people is outlawed and illegal,” said Abbas.
Since mid-June when Hamas overran Abbas’ Fatah militants and seized control of the Gaza Strip, Hamas has been ruling the coastal enclave while Fatah controls the West Bank.
Following Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led Palestinian government and appointed a new one based in the West Bank city of Ramallah.