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Abbas: No new initiatives to be presented at Arab League summit

The Palestinian Authority will stick with the Arab Peace Initiative instead of offering any new proposals for solving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. 

The Palestinian Authority (PA) will not present any new diplomatic initiatives for an Israel-Palestinian peace at this year’s Arab League Summit in Amman, Jordan, according to a report in the Jordanian al-Ghad outlet.

“There are no new peace plans or initiatives,” Abbas was quoted as telling the newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday.

The report contradicts a previous assertion this past week by Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit. Speaking to the London-based Arabic outlet, Al Sharq al Awsat, Gheit said that “the Palestinian cause will be granted huge attention in the coming Arab summit.”

Instead of offering a new initiative, Abbas said in the interview that the only solution on the table is the Arab Peace Initiative presented by Saudi Arabia in 2002. The proposal calls for Israel to withdraw from all territory won during the Six Day War of 1967 and in return, the Arab League would open up to full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

While Israel has not accepted the Arab League’s proposal, it has been a topic of discussion among mainstream Israeli political figures. Most recently, Israel’s head of the Knesset’s Opposition and chairman of the Zionist Union, Isaac Herzog, suggested during this year’s annual conference of the Americna Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that Israel reconsider the Arab Peace Initiative.

In the interview published by al-Ghad, Abbas also accused Israel of threatening the two-state solution by accelerating “settlement” projects in Judea and Samaria.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News