Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Saturday that the Palestinians are determined to reach an agreement with Israel on the two-state solution either this year or later.
Abbas' statements were made as he inaugurated the new building of the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The construction of the building was funded by China and the United Nations.
"The idea of having two states, a Palestinian one to live side-by-side with the state of Israel is internationally supported. Therefore, we work intensively and remove all obstacles in order to achieve it," said Abbas.
U.S. President George W. Bush, who will step down at the beginning of 2009, had promised the Palestinians that their independent Palestinian state would be established to live side-by-side with Israel this year.
After Annapolis conference, held in November 2007, Israel and the Palestinians launched intensive talks to agree on the outstanding permanent status issues. However, it seems that an agreement won't be reached by the end of this year.
"The efforts, which are exerted by the Palestinian Authority together with the Israeli side under the American sponsorship and the Quartet Committee, aim at achieving this goal," said Abbas.
He added "this depends on our neighbors to ease the peace process... in order to let our people get a flourishing independent state that can live side-by-side with the state of Israel."
Source:Xinhua
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