Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas affirmed that the olive branch has not fallen and it is a Palestinian interest that the branch must not fall and it is our duty to keep the branch raised high because at the end of the day we want peace. We want a just solution for the Palestinian cause through negotiations; therefore, we care a lot to keep the olive branch that was raised by martyr Abu Ammar (Yasser Arafat) in 1974 a strong branch not affected by the storms that passed during the long years so that we can attain the goal we aspire. In a special interview for Palestine TV yesterday evening, President Abbas said: We want from America to end its full bias towards Israel although there is a historic alliance between them and I believe that this alliance will continue in the future. What we ask from America is some justice to implement the international legitimacy; this is what we seek and this is what we are working for. Now, as we can see there are new conditions that emerged: President Bush called for an international meeting or conference a few months ago; this meeting was not clear from many angles and the date was not clear and we didn’t know who will attend and what are the principles of the conference. When we went to the UN, the Americans clarified these vague matters, the conference will be in the second half of November. Now, the parties attending the conference are known, there is a clear invitation to the Arab Follow Up Committee which includes 12 countries, and the Secretary General of the Arab League, and an invitation to the major industrial countries and a call to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and three Islamic countries: Turkey, Indonesia, and Malaysia and Norway. This is what we have heard and the conference is not limited to the attendance of a small number of countries; it is a broad meeting that might include more than 30 countries and there are countries that requested to attend and I believe they will be granted approval, such as Brazil, South Africa, India, Greece and Spain. These countries submitted their requests to attend to the United States and we supported their presence because they have their weight such as the Non-aligned countries, especially Brazil, South Africa and India, so it will be a real international conference carrying the weight of the whole world. Now, the United States is facing a major responsibility because they are not inviting the parties to a meeting; it is becoming an international conference and if it fails, it will be a heavy failure not only on the world but also on America itself. On the content of the conference, he said: there were talks on a declaration of principles and we rejected this idea because we already announced that in Oslo and this does not benefit the negotiations, then they moved towards a general statement and we said that this wont work and we stressed on the need to discuss all basic issues and to explain their foundations in order to assist in the launching of the negotiations, and the issues are Jerusalem, the refugees, the borders, water and security. President Bush also said: We want to present a document to the conference.

Matters are becoming almost clear now and when the Arab side went and met with Rice, they came out with encouraging impressions. Some questions remain pending regarding the Syrian track and we consider the Syrian track included in the roadmap and the Arab Peace Initiative. There is a need for the participation of Syria and Lebanon in this conference because they have occupied lands and we were the first to call for their presence. We have a serious point that needs to be clarified, if we agree on the document in the conference, serious negotiations will be launched after the conference to reach to a peace treaty. We demand to have negotiations for a limited period of time; these features would make us feel that the US position is serious, especially that President Bush informed everybody that the conference must not fail and that the conference must succeed. This means that the ideas of one party must not succeed at the expense of the other side. No, the idea of peace in the conference must succeed. The rest of the Arab countries seek more clarifications: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, these countries don’t have personal demands but have national demands related to the region and the Palestinian cause. I cannot say if they will attend or not; these countries will express their positions but their presence for sure is necessary and their absence will affect the credibility of the conference. On the terms of reference of the conference, Abbas said: if we look at the roadmap and read it carefully, we will find that it includes all references that we know; it includes Resolutions 242 and 338 and Resolution 1397 and the vision of President Bush who talked about a Palestinian independent state with contiguity and a viable state and the end of the occupation that occurred in 1967, and it also includes the Arab Peace Initiative which was endorsed by the Riyadh Summit and Beirut Summit and the Islamic Conference in 2002; so all references are in the roadmap, and the reports of Mitchell and Tenet. President Abbas said the solution lies in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with full sovereignty over its territories within the borders of June 4, and with sovereignty over all its resources and everything and to have East Jerusalem as its capital, and to guarantee the return of the refugees according to the solution that came in the Arab Peace Initiative. Excluding or postponing any issue of the six issues – Jerusalem, refugees, water, borders, settlements, and security – means the conflict will continue. When asked if the Palestinian side can say No in the conference, Abbas answered: We said No several times. He stressed there are no secret negotiations but there are specialized committees which were agreed upon between himself and Israeli PM Olmert. When asked if there are assurances from the Americans to the Palestinian side, he said there are no personal assurances but the international parties and the United States are speaking with confidence and all we have to do is to go there and see because experience is the best proof on results. He rejected the idea of a state with temporary borders; we rejected this in the past and we reject it now. True, it is found in the roadmap but it is in a non-binding formula. We will not accept a state within temporary borders within the borders of the Apartheid Wall. When we talk about the Palestinian constants, some tend to think that we are not flexible, no, these constants have been granted to us by the international legitimacy and we accepted them and we cling to them. The area of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is 6,205 square kilometers and this is the area where we want to establish our independent Palestinian state and this has been ratified by the international resolutions; we want a state to live side by side with Israel. Any attempt to ignore the six issues I mentioned means that we cannot make a permanent peace. East Jerusalem is well known to everyone and we don’t want to talk about it in installments. On the issue of land exchange, the talk about exchange lands in the region of Muthallath inside the Green Line is rejected and we will not discuss it but we agree to slight amendments in the borders as stipulated in Resolution 242 and all international resolutions. We have demanded always an international conference, and here it comes, and if we cannot achieve our rights, we will say it and no one can impose any surrendering solution on us, at the same time, we have to go and try and make them hear us. We decided in 1988 to go and make a peace offensive upon a decision from the PNC and whatever the solution is, it will have to be subject to one of two options: either a popular referendum or to be presented to the PNC. The issue of the prisoners is on the agenda of the presidency and the government, what Israel released is a small number compared with the presence of 11,000 prisoners in the prisons, including 5,000 prisoners without trial, and this violates all international norms and laws and there cannot be a solution while the prisoners are in the prisons. He said there are 54,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who don’t have identity cards or identification papers and this will be solved; he stressed that this issue and the issue of the prisoners will be part of the document that they are working on. On the issue of Hamas, President Abbas said: Hamas accepted the prisoners' document and we formed a national unity on the basis of that document and part of the world accepted it but unfortunately, as we were making vows at the wall of Ka'ba in Mecca on the agreement, they were planting mines in my path and in my house, and there is clear evidence on this, and if Hamas insisted on the civil war, the peace exposed them and discovered their intentions. On Hamas demands to return to dialogue, Abbas said: Hamas does not carry the olive branch. Hamas wants to negotiate on the basis of the results of the coup and we say to them retreat from the coup and we are ready for dialogue. No dialogue before their retreat from the coup and this position was informed to the Arab Foreign Ministers meeting in the Arab League and in my meetings in New York and I explained the position and there was no objection. We have never seen before such crimes and deliberate injuries that cause permanent disabilities committed by Hamas which also classified people as faithful and infidels; these are strange things to us; what we know is that the infidel has a chance to return to his faith. What is worrying is that they attacked not only Fatah but all factions, even Islamic Jihad which carries same ideas like them. On the crisis of the salaries, he affirmed that the PNA pays all salaries with the exception of those working with Hamas; the PNA also sends and facilitates sending food supplies and worked on paying the bills of electricity and water and struggled to open al-Oja Crossing and worked on solving the problem of thousands of Palestinians stranded at the Egyptian borders.

Published at Al Quds NewsPaper on October 11, 2007