President Abbas: Palestine will never surrender

Both Hamas and Fateh are positive about reconciliation talks Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday that he would meet Khaled Meshaal, Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, in Cairo next Wednesday to discuss reconciliation. Abbas called upon Fateh and Hamas to be positive about going forward with the summit. Meanwhile, Hamas appreciated Abbas's statement stating that they hoped words would become action at the summit.
Abbas also called on the United States, in his statement on the seventh anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death and the 23rd anniversary of the Independence Announcement, to deal impartially with all matters, especially when dealing with Israel and its settlement plans.
Abbas said: "We are not after a clash with USA who in spite of its distinguished relationship with Israel, provided outstanding support to the people and the authority of Palestine. We are fairly aware of the importance of the US's role in a serious peace process and hope to see the country as an impartial mediator.    
"We maintain our relationships and communications with President Barack Obama, and seek realisation of the two-state solution on basis of the borders of June 1967," he said.
Regarding Israeli security breaches, he added: "We don't want to detail Israeli breaches on all laws, but I'll recall just one thing - when the Israel blocked our funds two weeks ago as a kind of penalty for going to the UN and UNESCO, which proves Israeli breaches of international law and bilateral treaties and conventions."
He also said that Palestine would never surrender and that it was time to escalate efforts in peaceful resistance and make use of advocates of the Palestinian case and peace activists in Israel itself. In addition he asked supporters of the case to widen the resistance base, especially from the part of outstanding leadership figures and field cadres to support the civil resistance of Palestinian people, which is guaranteed by International Law.
"We submitted the application of full membership to the UN and there nothing will stop us as it is a legal right of ours according to all laws, projects and conventions internationally recognised."
He added: "We are open to all choices and will discuss this with the members of leadership as one of the most significant matters on the agenda of my meeting with Meshaal to be on November 23."
"Our hand is still open with peace based on justice and our rights to have an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. At the same time, we don't hope to get lost in the maze of endless negotiations to find ourselves going around in a vicious circle," he said.
Abbas held: "We are peace-seekers and will continue our efforts until we achieve peace and justice. We will repeatedly reject transitional solutions and temporary borders."             
Abbas was fairly decisive concerning the issues of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and the Arab Spring events, saying "We will never sit to negotiate while our people are jailed in Israel." He added: "We are inclined to the Arab peoples, but we take the position of spectators without scattering comments here and there to protect our own interest."
On the other hand, Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, in Gaza appreciated Abbas's keenness on seeing Hamas as an essential composite of the Palestinian people saying: "We appreciate the statement made by Abu Mazen as he reiterated the importance of talks with Hamas represented by Khaled Meshaal in Cairo to discuss the future of Palestine in addition to going forward in the way to reconciliation." But he stressed "everything is mainly dependant on application of what has been said and the final results."
Abu Zuhri also added "communications between Hamas and Fath delegates are going on to organise the agenda of the meeting and provide the factors that guarantee the success of the meeting."     
He held that it is too early to decide whether any of the issues related to the articles of reconciliation had been agreed upon.  
Dr. Salah Al Bardawil, a prominent Hamas member, described Abbas's statement as positive and unconditional on reconciliation. He also added "the statement made by Abbas has many positive points as he addressed the people's resistance as one of the recognised, but not the only, means of resistance...he also stressed the Right of Return as a prior condition for resuming negotiations."  
Al ardawil expressed hopes that the statement would come into fruition so as to ensure Palestinians' safety and achieve real reconciliation between the twoparties.