Paris int'l conference an opportunity for making peace: Palestinian official

A senior Palestinian official said on Tuesday that the Paris international conference for peace, scheduled to be held in mid of January, is an opportunity to achieve a just peace in the region.

Nabil Abu Rdineh, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and spokesman of the Palestinian Presidency, said in an official statement that the recent Israeli remarks are a challenge to the international resolutions.

Abu Rdineh's remarks were Palestinian official reaction to an earlier statement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who described the Paris peace conference as "absurd."

"The Paris international peace conference is an opportunity to achieve a just peace and these statements (of Netanyahu) are a challenge to the recent resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and other international resolutions."

He added that "these remarks can never contribute to creating a proper atmosphere for a real and a just peace based on the basics that the entire international community has consensus on it."

The senior Palestinian official reiterated that the Israeli policies and the remarks of the Israeli ministers are rejecting the two-state solution and clearly stand to support the illegal settlement," adding "these remarks would only bring tension."

"The Palestinians won't accept less than establishing an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital," said Abu Rdineh.

Israel has officially rejected the French initiative of holding an international peace conference in Paris aiming at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel said it is sticking to the bilateral peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Earlier on Tuesday, Abbas, who met with an Israeli delegation representing the left-wing party of Meretz in Ramallah, said the recent UNSC resolution number 2334 is not against Israel, "but it is against the illegal settlements." Endit