BICOM

US President Barack Obama yesterday told Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas that tough decisions will need to be made to broker a peace deal.

Meeting at the White House, Obama said Abbas “has consistently renounced violence, has consistently sought a diplomatic and peaceful solution.” However, he cautioned that “We’re going to have to take some tough political decisions and risks if we’re to move it forward.” US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to present both Israeli and Palestinian leaders with a framework plan for final status talks during the coming weeks, designed to pave the way for an extension to peace negotiations.

Obama said that a peace accord would be shaped by “a territorial compromise on both sides… based on ’67 lines with mutually agreed upon swaps.” However, Abbas omitted any mention of land swaps, saying that a Palestinian state would be based “on the 1967 borders so that the Palestinians can have their own independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital.”

Abbas was also unbending on the issue of recognising Israel’s character as the nation state of the Jewish people, which Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu views as a crucial foundation to future talks. Abbas said that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation had recognised Israel’s legitimacy in 1988 and “in 1993 we recognised the state of Israel” by signing the Oslo Accords. Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat later told AFP explicitly “Abbas confirmed his position to President Obama refusing to recognise Israel as a Jewish State.”

Abbas also ascribed particular importance to the fourth and final scheduled release of Palestinian prisoners, scheduled for the end of March, agreed by Israel as part of a package to restart talks in July. He commented, “This will give a very solid impression about the seriousness of these efforts to achieve peace.”