Malaysia: President Abbas Says Palestinians Ready to Implement Peace Initiative

Text of report in English by Malaysian official news agency Bernama website

[Unattributed report from the "General" page: "Palestinians Ready To Implement Peace Initiative"]

Kuala Lumpur, Oct 21 (Bernama) – The Palestinians are ready to implement the “Road Map” to peace and are now preparing documents based on the initiative to be presented at the Middle East Conference in Washington next month, President Mahmoud Abbas said.

The principles of the peace plan were first outlined in 2002 by United States President George W. Bush who called for the creation of an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace.

“We also have the Arab Peace Initiative which calls for normalisation of relations between Arab countries and Israel should it withdraw from all Arab and Palestinian territories.

“These are the terms of reference between us and Israel and the documents which will be presented at the conference will be based on the road map,” Abbas told reporters at the end of his two-day visit to Malaysia here today.

Abbas said Hamas should also join in the peace efforts as Palestinians would need to present a unified front.

He said there was also the objective of concluding a peace treaty between Palestine and Israel before Bush ends his term as US president in January 2009.

“This is exactly what we’re seeking. We have time. Of course it’s not a long time but a short time. So we’re trying to exhaust all our efforts to reach a conclusion with the help from the Americans and other countries,” he said.

Elaborating on the documents to be presented at the conference, Abbas said both Palestine and Israel had established their own teams to draft them based on six major issues, namely Jerusalem, the refugee situation, settlements, border areas, security and water.

“Both sides are working intensively to reach agreement on all these issues. After the conference, there will be negotiations on the details.

“We’re proposing six months for the negotiations and after that we should conclude the peace treaty,” said Abbas.

Asked whether he was confident that the conference would achieve the desired outcome, the Palestinian leader said he did not expect the solutions to come easily.

“There should be obstacles. If there are no obstacles, it means that we can solve the problem easily,” he said, adding that the fact that the conflict had dragged on for decades showed that it was difficult to resolve.

“But now is the opportunity, not only for the Palestinians but also for the Israelis, to attain peace and stability,” said Abbas.

On the tendency of the international media to label him as “secular”, Abbas said one need not be a member of Hamas to be a religious person.

“I’m a religious man, I’m not secular. I was born into a religious family. If they want to describe me as secular, it’s up to them. As far as I’m concerned, I’m a good Muslim but I’m not (from) Hamas,” he said, adding that there were thousands of Fatah members who were devout Muslims.

Touching on the issue of his successor following his statement that he would not contest once his term ends, Abbas said: “It’s premature to talk about successor because it’s up to the Palestinians to decide.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi bid farewell to the Palestinian president who would be leaving for Jakarta later today.

This was Abbas’ first visit to Malaysia since he became Palestinian president in January 2005.

Originally published by Bernama website, Kuala Lumpur, in English 0043 21 Oct 07.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.