RAMALLAH, June 18, 2011 (WAFA) – Saturday’s three local Arabic dailies focused on President Mahmoud Abbas’ meeting with EU Foreign Policy chief, Catherine Ashton, in which he demanded that the European Union recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders comes September either as a union or as individual states.

Al-Ayyam, al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Quds headlines also focused on Israeli government plans to expand Ofra, a Jewish settlement northeast of Ramallah, and calls by right wing Israeli groups to limit Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s powers over the construction of settlements inside the territories occupied in 1967.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida reported on Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman’s threats to cancel all signed Palestinian-Israeli agreements if the Palestinian Authority continues to seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state within 1976 in September.

The three newspapers featured news about the clashes between Palestinian protestors and Israeli army in Friday’s demonstrations against the wall in al-Ma’sara, Bilin, Nabi Saleh and Nilin villages in the West Bank. The papers printed pictures of the protests in several villages.

Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida quoted Israeli President Shimon Peres saying: “Those who accept negotiations based on 1967 borders will win the world’s support and those who doesn’t will lose it.”

Al-Quds editorial raised the question: “What does Israel really want form the Palestinian people and the PA?” This question was posed in the light of Israel’s vicious campaign against the Palestinian reconciliation.

M.H./M.A.