Abbas plan calls for Israeli pullout from West Bank within three years

Details of the Palestinian leader's peace plan was revealed on Tuesday by the former religious endowments minister, Mahmoud al-Habash.

By YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA
PA President Mahmoud Abbas (photo credit: REUTERS)
PA President Mahmoud Abbas
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will seek Arab League approval next week for his diplomatic initiative that calls for a nine-month negotiation window that will eventually lead to an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank within three years.
Abbas is scheduled to present his plan to Arab League foreign ministers on September 7.
Details of the Palestinian leader's peace plan was revealed on Tuesday by the former religious endowments minister, Mahmoud al-Habash.
According to the plan, Israel and the PA would begin discussions on the borders of a future Palestinian state. The two sides would devote three months to the issue.
In the second stage of talks, the parties would focus on the remaining core issues, including the future status of refugees, control of Jerusalem, the settlements, security, and water.
"President Abbas wants Arab support so that in the future he can submit it for acceptance by the international community," al-Habash told the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad.
"The initial stage of the talks will be regarding the drawing of borders," he said. "During this time, settlement construction will cease and the fourth round of prisoner releases, to which Israel obligated itself in March of this year, will go forward."
"The goal of the Palestinians is to begin discussions that will eventually lead to the end of the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 lines with east Jerusalem as its capital," al-Habash told Al-Ghad.
The Palestinian official said the peace talks would be based on UN Security Council resolutions and UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which calls for a just solution to the refugee question.
"If Israel doesn't agree to the allotted time frame, the Palestinians will begin to undertake unilateral diplomatic and political steps in order to force Israel to capitulate to the peace process," al-Habash said. These steps would include joining more international treaties and organizations, including the Rome Treaty.