Abbas: Settlements pose grave danger to peace

President Mahmoud Abbas warned in an address at the opening session of the Fatah Revolutionary Council held in Ramallah Wednesday evening that Israeli settlement activities pose a grave threat to peace in the region.Abbas said that he discussed with US President Barack Obama, during their March 21 meeting in Ramallah, the status of the peace process.“We explained to the US president the dangers facing the two-state solution due to unprecedented Israeli government settlement construction and its rejection of all signed agreements,” he said.The meeting with Obama, said Abbas, “Was very important and positive.”He said, “We presented very clearly the Palestinian position from the peace process and our full commitment to achieving just and comprehensive peace based on United Nations resolutions and the two-state solution on the 1967 borders, as well as a halt to the illegal settlement construction on land of the State of Palestine.”Abbas discussed as well the situation of prisoners in Israeli jails, particularly following the death of cancer patient Maysara Abu Hamdiya while in prison. He said the prisoners’ issue is a top priority for him which he always discusses with Arab and world leaders.He stressed the importance of releasing all prisoners held before the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993 as well as children, the women, the ill and the elderly.Abbas also talked about the agreement he had signed last week with Jordan’s King Abdullah on the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. He said the agreement was only a restatement of the 1988 understanding that gives Jordan the right to protect the holy places in Jerusalem along with the Palestinian Authority.Abbas warned of the deteriorating situation of Palestinian refugees in Syria and said that the Palestine Liberation Organization is doing its best to protect the refugees.