Abbas says he is ready to make "peace" with any Israeli government

WARSAW, (PIC)-- Former PA chief and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has expressed readiness to pursue peace negotiations with any Israeli occupation government produced by the elections. Abbas's announcement came while blood of Palestinian children and innocent civilians that was shed by the Israeli war machine was still visible in the streets of Gaza Strip. In a press statement he made from the Polish capital Warsaw on Monday, Abbas said, "I don’t know who will win the elections in Israel, but we will cooperate with any Israeli government produced by those elections based on the bilateral agreements and international resolutions issued till now". "We expect the new Israeli government to halt construction and expansion of settlements (in the West Bank)…if they don’t stop those activities I wonder what would happen to the peace process… I want Israel to fulfill all its obligations, otherwise, we all would be threatened by violence and terrorism", Abbas added. Abbas had engaged the Israeli occupation government of Ehud Olmert in peace negotiations over the past four years since he became the PA chief in 2005, but expansion and construction of new settlements in the West Bank continued every day. Contradicting remarks of his boss, Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaina, who accompanies Abbas in his European tour, claimed that the Palestinian leadership will not deal with any Israeli government not committed to the peace process, the two-state solution, the roadmap, the Arab peace initiative, and halting settlement activities, saying that the Palestinians are committed to those points. Since the ill-fated Oslo agreement the Fatah-led PLO signed with Israel in 1993, the frequency of settlement construction in the West Bank and the occupied city of Jerusalem increased rapidly despite Abbas and Fatah leaders' threats to stop peace negotiations if those activities were not halted. Meanwhile, the Israeli English-language newspaper the Jerusalem Post said on Tuesday that the Israeli war ministry was planning to boost Abbas's authority in the West Bank in the event the prisoners' swap deal with Hamas, which is expected to enhance Hamas's popularity, took place. The paper quoted officials in the war minister's office as saying that one of those options to boost Abbas was handing him security responsibility in one of the West Bank cities such as Tulkarem. http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.