Abbas: our sons will fight Israelis for a just deal

[Scurrilous]

Palestinian president says long-term peace will be jeopardised without negotiations

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"The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, says Israel's plan to impose its final borders deep inside the occupied territories while expropriating large areas of Palestinian land for Jewish settlers will lead to another war in a decade.

Speaking in Gaza City as Israel dropped scores of artillery shells in and around the city, Mr Abbas told the Guardian that the newly elected Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, would jeopardise the possibility of long-term peace if he refused to negotiate an agreement that ordinary Palestinians considered just.

"The Israelis say: 'OK, we'll impose a unilateral solution' - which means that they will postpone, delay, the struggle and they will not solve the problem. OK, they can postpone it for 10 years. After 10 years our sons will feel it is unfair and they will return back to struggle," Mr Abbas said in a rare interview with several European and North American newspapers.

"In Gaza they evacuated the settlements and left Gaza. But in the West Bank they will demarcate the borders and say: 'This is your state.' And they want our state within the wall without negotiations ... Nobody will accept it. The struggle will continue."


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