Israel's Peres welcomes "courageous" words from Abbas

Israeli President Shimon Peres hailed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as a courageous partner for peace on Saturday after the Palestinian leader made clear his support for a two-state solution to the decades old conflict with Israel.    

In an interview with Israeli television broadcast this week, the Western-backed Abbas also hinted that Palestinians who, prior to the 1948 establishment of the Jewish state lived on lands that are now in Israel, do not have a right to return there, comments that sparked an outcry from his Islamist rivals.    

Peres, a Nobel peace prize laureate, holds a post that is largely ceremonial and he has little influence on the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government. As prime minister more than a decade ago, Peres headed a left-wing government that actively pursued peace with the Palestinians.    

Netanyahu has repeatedly portrayed Abbas as a peace partner, urging him to return to negotiations, despite Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's description of the Palestinian president as an obstacle to peace.    
  
Abbas has defied Israel and the United States by planning to ask the UN General Assembly to upgrade the Palestinians to a non-member state. Facing possible punitive Israeli and US sanctions, Abbas has promised an immediate return to peace talks after the UN vote, which the Palestinians are likely to win.    

The Islamist group Hamas, which wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas in 2007, condemned the comments and thousands of its members rallied in protest and burned posters of Abbas.       

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a faction historically allied with Abbas, even called on the president to be questioned by his own Palestine Liberation Organization.

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said issues like the right of return of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future state must be resolved in negotiations with Israel. He accused rival groups, without singling any of them out, of exploiting the president's comments to "carry out a coup" against him. 


REUTERS