Abbas: "I can’t allow myself to make even one concession"

Just four days after meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Washington, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday threatened again that the Palestinians will pull out of the direct talks if the construction freeze in the settlements, due to expire later this month, is not extended. “The talks will be for this month only,” Abbas was quoted by the PA’s Al-Ayyam newspaper as saying. “If the Israeli government extends the freeze, we will continue with the talks. But if they don’t extend, we will withdraw from the negotiations.”

Abbas said that he made his position clear to US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Netanyahu during last week’s launch of the direct talks in Washington, stressing that he would not give in on any point to Israel. “If they demand concessions on the rights of the refugees or the 1967 borders, I will quit. I can’t allow myself to make even one concession,” he said.

Netanyahu responded indirectly, telling a visiting threeperson US Democratic congressional delegation he hopes Abbas “will not choose to abandon the road to peace.”

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