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Abbas: Palestinian State a ’Vital Interest’ for Israel

25 February 2010 01:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that the creation of an independent Palestine is a "vital interest" for Israel, reiterating at the same time his refusal to enter talks unless Zionist settlement building ends, APA reports quoting Al Jazeera.

"An independent Palestinian state is a vital interest for Israel," the Palestinian Authority head said during exchanges with Belgian senators and deputies in Brussels.

"We all hope that a just and durable peace... in a state living peacefully with Israel," could bring "peace and stability to the whole region," said Abbas, who was set to meet EU president Herman Van Rompuy and Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme later in the day.

While seeing "no alternative to negotiations", Abbas stressed that these could not begin "while Israel continues the colonization" of the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem through the building up of Zionist settlements.

Abbas also declared that the appeal by the European Union in December for Jerusalem to become the future capital of two states, as part of a negotiated settlement, marked "the start of a political role" for the EU in the region. "I would like the United States to adopt" such a declaration, he added.

The Palestinian leader singled out the "very good position" taken by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who has floated the idea of granting international recognition to a Palestinian state even before Israel has agreed on its borders. "However I can’t say that it reflects the French position," he added.