KERRY AND ABBAS MEET TO DISCUSS PEACE TALKS WITH ISRAEL

Paris, 19 Rabi’ul Akhir 1435/19 February 3014 (MINA) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris Wednesday to seek an end to the more than six-decade old conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Direct peace talks between Israel and Palestine resumed in Washington in July 2013 after a nearly three-year pause. The U.S. is seeking to broker an agreement on a “two-state solution.”

Abbas is the president of the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank, while the Gaza Strip has been governed by its political rival Hamas since elections in January 2006, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

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On February 8, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said the party would reject any framework peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank.

Kerry, during his visit to the region last month, presented both the Israelis and Palestinians a framework for an eventual peace agreement that addresses “final status issues” – borders, security, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

About 500,000 Israelis now live in more than a hundred settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians want to establish their state in those areas, as well as the Gaza Strip.

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Palestinians insist that the issue of future Israeli settlements must be addressed before a comprehensive final-status agreement can be reached. (T/P012/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)