Nunu: Abbas wants to offer concessions with Arab cover

GAZA, — Mahmoud Abbas, the PA chief whose term in office expired over a year ago, is pressuring the Arab countries to support negotiations with Israel without halting settlement activity and without any commitment to Palestinian rights, Taher Al-Nunu, the spokesman of the PA government in Gaza, said.

He added in a statement to Quds Press on Wednesday that Abbas and his Ramallah authority want to give away Palestinian rights, “a thing that we will never permit”.

The negotiations would only beautify Israel’s image, Nunu said, charging Abbas with attempting to offer concessions with Arab cover.

Anything that results from those negotiations would not be binding to the Palestinian people, the spokesman underlined.

He said that those embarking on negotiations represent an isolated group of our people and almost all Palestinian factions had rejected those talks.

Islamic Jihad had issued a statement condemning the Arab follow up committee’s endorsement of four months of negotiations with Israel, saying that the position only served the “criminal enemy” and encouraged it to go ahead in its policy of settlement, annexation and expansion at the expense of our people, land and holy shrines.

Syrian foreign minister Walid Al-Mo’alem had interrupted Arab League secretary general Amr Mousa while reading the closing statement of the Arab committee saying that there was no Arab consensus regarding the negotiations.

He said that Abbas and his authority shoulder the responsibility of those talks, adding that the authorization is not within the jurisdiction of the Arab follow up committee that was founded to promote the Arab peace initiative and not to provide a cover.

Mousa said that the Arab countries were convinced that Israel was not serious in its peace bids, but opted to give a final chance for those indirect negotiations at the request of the American administration.