Abbas slams Israel's new settlement plan
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Xinhua, October 15, 2011
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday slammed the new Israeli plan to build 2,610 construction units in an Israeli settlement in Jerusalem.
The Palestinian state-run Wafa news agency quoted Abbas, who is currently visiting France as saying that more construction units in the settlement "shows that Israel doesn't want to make peace."
"Israel doesn't respect the international legitimacy and flouts it, therefore it doesn't want peace," said Abbas in reaction to earlier reports saying that Israel has plans to build 2,610 more unit in a settlement south of east Jerusalem.
Abbas' reaction to the new Israeli plan is the first official Palestinian reaction. The issue of settlement construction was the main reason behind the collapse of the direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians last October.
The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state, while Israel insists that all Jerusalem be the eternal capital of the state of Israel.
On Sept. 23, Abbas submitted a request to the United Nations Security Council for a full membership of an independent Palestinian state established on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including east Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, a senior official joining Abbas told the Palestinian Radio that Abbas appealed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to include a Palestinian prisoner, holding the French national to be released from Israeli jails.
Qais Abdul Karim, member of Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO) said that President Abbas asked Sarkozy to pressure on Israel to free Salah Hamouri, a French-Palestinian citizen, imprisoned in Israel.
"President Abbas asked President Sarkozy to help include the name of Hamouri in the list of the 550 prisoners Israel intends to release after two months," said Abdul Karim.
On Tuesday, Israel and Hamas leaders declared that they had reached an agreement, mediated by Egypt on releasing 1,027 prisoners from the Israeli jails in two phase for the release of the Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit.
