Arafat remembered
WEST BANK: Mahmud Abbas called Thursday for concrete US efforts to
deliver a Palestinian state, as crowds marked the sixth anniversary of
Yasser Arafat's death.
The Palestinian President said he would hold US President Barack
Obama, who helped relaunch direct peace talks in early September, to his
pledge to seek the creation of a Palestinian state within a year.
"We consider this statement to be a commitment by President Obama,
not just a slogan, and we hope that next year he won't say to us 'we
apologise, we can't,'" Abbas said in an address to tens of thousands. In
a September address at the United Nations, Obama insisted new peace
talks could succeed, despite grinding to a halt three weeks after they
started over the issue of settlement construction in the West Bank.
"When we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will
lead to a new member of the United Nations an independent, sovereign
state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel," Obama said.
In a speech delivered at Arafat's grave site, where a new museum is
being built to honour the veteran leader, Abbas vowed he would not
negotiate while Israel continued to build settlements on Palestinian
land. He pledged to uphold Arafat's insistence that Palestinians would
one day secure east Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state and
the right of return for refugees.
The Palestinians have refused to continue negotiations unless Israel
reinstates a ban on settlement construction, which expired on September
26, and have threatened to seek UN recognition for an independent state.
Abbas defended that proposal Thursday, despite a warning from US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton against "unilateral steps." RAMALLAH,
Friday, AFP
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