Palestinian despair on two-state solution main cause to current tension: Abbas

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that the main cause for the current tension with Israel was the growing despair among the Palestinians, mainly young generation, in regards to the failure of the two-state solution.

"This status of Palestinian despair was due to the expansion of Israeli settlements, the construction of the wall in the West Bank and the daily Israeli aggressive attacks on their properties," Abbas said.

"In spite of all what Israel does, we are sticking to our rights and we are not going to give up or make concessions over our rights no matter what the circumstances are," said Abbas.

He stressed that the resumption of the peace talks with Israel "needs the release of prisoners who were arrested before signing the peace accords with Israel in 1993," which was agreed upon with Israel and the United States.

Abbas urged Israel to freeze settlement construction and stop the assaults by settlers against the Palestinians and their Islamic and Christian holy sites. He also urged to set up a date for establishing the Palestinian state.

The wave of violence broke out in early October between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in which 122 Palestinians and 20 Israelis have been killed. Endit