AMSTERDAM, June 30, 2011 (WAFA)- President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday thanked Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte and the Dutch people for the assistance provided to the Palestinian authority and people, in their endeavor to build the institutions of the Palestinian state.
In a joint press conference with Rutte in Amsterdam, Abbas said “I discussed with the prime minister the situation of the peace process and the efforts to resume negotiations, which are our main option.”
He added, “We are working with the Quartet to have the Israeli government accept the principle of two states on 1967 lines with mutually agreed swap, as specified by President Barak Obama, and to stop settlements activities in order to give peace a chance.”
Abbas also said, “I also shared with Rutte our efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation which is a cardinal Palestinian interest.”
“The Palestinian government will be composed of technocrats and on the basis of my program,” he said.
On his part, Rutte thanked Abbas for his visit and said that “we would like to help the Palestinian people develop in the direction of an independent state side by side with the Jewish state of Israel that is why we decided to include PA on the new list of our partner countries for Development Corporation.”
He said that Netherlands would like to invest in of all the Palestinian society, in both the West Bank and Gaza. “This involvement put the issue of exports from Gaza on the agenda; our activities there show that exports from Gaza are possible without compromising Israel’s security and it’s possible to give the people of Gaza economic prospects in the future without benefiting Hamas.”
Regarding the reconciliation, Rutte said “we hope that the reconciliation among Palestinians will create an environment in which the Palestinian people as a whole can benefit from Abbas’ policies. A unity government that meets the quartet principles is a necessary pre condition for achieving this.”
Rutte considered heading the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state as unilateral step, insisting that recognizing state must be through negotiations.
In an earlier joint press conference with Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal, Abbas said “we concentrated on the negotiations and we said that the Palestinian priority is to go negotiations and to find a solution with the Israeli government.”
He said “we informed his Excellency that we received recently a French proposal to resume the talks with the Israeli government. We accepted that proposal, which is based on the principles of what mentioned by US president Barak Obama; 1967 borders and mutually agreed swaps and both sides will stop all kinds of unilateral actions, of course we understand these unilateral actions; that Israel should cease settlement activities during our negotiations.”
Rosenthal said “I had a very fruitful meeting with Abbas. Developments in the Arab region only stress the necessity of a very concrete restart of direct negotiations… the necessity for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the 1967 borders, including land swaps and on mutual security for both sides.
He added that in a subsequent phase Jerusalem and the refugees’ issues should also be solved and be part of agreement through negotiations.”
F.R.
