Abbas to PM: Just desiring peace is not enough

In CNN interview, Netanyahu had said that he supports the creation of a contiguous, demilitarized Palestinian state.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Netanyahu interview with CNN 370 (photo credit: Screenshot)
Netanyahu interview with CNN 370
(photo credit: Screenshot)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, saying that the desire to achieve peace is not enough, and must be coupled with actions.
Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh was referring to an interview Netanyahu gave CNN that was broadcast Tuesday, in which he said Israel does not want to rule its neighbors and that he believes he could deliver a peace agreement.
Abu Rudeineh asserted that facts on the ground indicate to the Palestinians that Israel is instead determined to continue its policy of settlement, including in east Jerusalem, official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA reported.
Reaching peace, he continued, "require[s] an immediate and complete halt of all settlement activities, [dismantling] of all settlements, and the recognition of the two-state solution based on 1967 borders and resolutions of the international legitimacy," according to the report.
During the interview with CNN on Tuesday, Netanyahu said: "I think that I could deliver a peace agreement. I could get the Israeli people to follow me if I believe that I have a serious partner on the other side willing to make the necessary compromises on the Palestinian side."
Asked if he would accept the notion that a future Palestinian state should be contiguous, Netanyahu responded: "Yes. I don't want to govern the Palestinians. I don't want them as subjects of Israel nor as citizens of Israel. I want them to have their own independent state. But a demilitarized state."
He said that the state would not be "Swiss cheese."
Netanyahu also asserted that the future of the Jewish people is "intimately bound" with the future of the State of Israel.
On Iran, the prime minister acknowledged that sanctions are visibly impairing the Islamic Republic's economy but have not impacted its continuing nuclear activities.