Palestinians to demand all occupied land back
Middle East Desk Report

RAMALLAH (West Bank)—The Palestinians will demand the return of all their Israeli-occupied lands in peace talks and will not agree to a state with temporary borders, president Mahmud Abbas said on Wednesday.
In an interview with Palestinian television, Abbas outlined what the Palestinians will push for in talks with Israelis after a US-sponsored Middle East peace conference expected in November. “This meeting must touch on the main questions, including borders, refugees, water, Jerusalem, settlements and security,” he said.
“The Palestinian people must have a continuous and viable state within 1967 borders. The area of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip stands at 6,205 square kilometres (2,396 square miles) and we want these 6,205 square kilometres,” he said. He said he would accept “border modifications here and there” but rejected any exchanges of territory between Israel and the Palestinians under any final peace deal.
Israel wants to keep its major settlement blocks in the occupied West Bank, in exchange for giving the Palestinians equivalent amounts of land elsewhere. Abbas also reiterated that “we have rejected in the past and we reject now a state with temporary borders. It will lead us to an impasse that will last many, many years.”
The so-called roadmap for Middle East peace — dormant since its launch in 2003 — contained the option of creating a Palestinian state with temporary borders first, and determining the final borders later. Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams earlier this week began trying to hammer out a joint document ahead of the November meeting, with a view of starting negotiations after the conference.
Washington called the conference, whose exact date, location and participant list have not yet been announced, amid its efforts to jumpstart the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks dormant for nearly seven years. “The Americans say with confidence that it will work,” Abbas said referring to the meeting, but added that failure “will not be a catastrophe.”
“The Palestinian people know that the resolution of their problems is complicated” and will not accept that an agreement be imposed on them. “We are capable of saying ‘no’ when it is necessary and we have already done so in the past.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday laid out his most specific demands for the borders of a future independent state, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
Abbas’ claim comes as Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams are trying to hammer out a joint vision for a future peace deal in time for a U.S.-hosted conference next month. In a a new confidence-building gesture to Abbas, Israel agreed Wednesday to grant residency permits to thousands of Palestinians who have been living illegally in the West Bank on expired visitors’ visas.
Abbas’ comments appeared to set the stage for tough negotiations, which are expected to include complicated arrangements such as land swaps and shared control over holy sites. Israel is seeking to retain parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
In a television interview, Abbas said the Palestinians want to establish a state on 6,205 square kilometers (2,400 square miles) of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It was the first time he has given a precise number for the amount of land he is seeking.
“We have 6,205 square kilometers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” Abbas told Palestine TV. “We want it as it is.” According to Palestinian negotiating documents obtained by The Associated Press, the Palestinian demands include all of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, east Jerusalem and small areas along the West Bank frontier that were considered no man’s land before the 1967 war.
Abbas said his claim is backed by U.N. resolutions. “This is our vision for the Palestinian independent state with full sovereignty on its borders, water and resources.”