SERBIA-ABBAS Abbas meets with Serbian President

Record ID: 150840

  • Title: SERBIA-ABBAS Abbas meets with Serbian President
  • Date: 10th June 2015
  • Summary: BELGRADE, SERBIA (JUNE 10, 2015) (REUTERS) MAHMOUD ABBAS, PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT GETTING OUT OF CAR AND SHAKING HANDS AND HUGGING WITH TOMISLAV NIKOLIC, SERBIAN PRESIDENT GUARD OF HONOUR
  • Embargoed: 25th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Serbia
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADXCUA89P9V21VT5E4X5UB58B5
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with his Serbian counterpart on Wednesday (June 10) in the country's capital Belgrade.
    During a press conference Abbas stressed the importance of having peaceful negotiations with Israel. But that Israel should halt the construction of settlements.
    "I say that we have outstretched our hands for around 60 years, not for six years, for negotiations. And we do not believe in reaching our goals in any other way than through negotiations and peace. And so whoever says that they've asked us for six years, that they want a dialogue, I don't think this is true. We, every time, approach them peacefully and ask the Israeli government, for only one thing, and that is to stop building settlements on our land during our negotiations with you. This is a legal demand, this is a lawful demand, this is a demand that all countries in the world agree on," said Abbas.
    The nearly 80-year-old former teacher, advocating non-violence, has spent his ten years in office trying to clamp down on armed groups and build up his administration in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
    Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic also said the 'whole world' will be relieved when talks restart.
    "I expect that misunderstandings about conditions for talks extension would be solved as soon as possible, and we, like the whole world be relieved, when we see that representatives of both countries sit at table to talk,'' said Nikolic.
    Palestinians seek a state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem - lands Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War. Palestinians consider the spread of Jewish settlements on occupied land a war crime which will deny them a viable state.
    Israel cites Biblical and historical roots to those lands.
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