 | But I wouldn't call it likely... |
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said in comments published yesterday a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians was possible in 2005 and talks on a final settlement should begin straightaway. Abbas, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Fatah's candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat, called on Israel to take confidence-building steps including a prisoner release and a halt to settlement construction. "If there are good intentions, let us start now, without prejudicing the road kill map, with dealing with issues of the final period so we achieve the settlement as scheduled in 2005," Abbas said in an interview with Egyptian magazine Almussawar. "I think that is possible and not difficult," he said.
The road map is a Middle East peace plan, backed by the quartet of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union, which aims to set up a Palestinian state and reach a final resolution to the conflict in 2005. "We have no objection to parallel official negotiations, or non-official, in which we discuss the issues of the final settlement from now, either with the sponsorship of the quartet or with the sponsorship of another state," Abbas, also called Abu Mazen, said. |