Abbas says Netanyahu ‘doesn’t believe in peace’

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “does not believe in peace.”

“I knew Netanyahu for a long time, since the 1990s … He is a man who doesn’t believe in peace,” Abbas said in an interview with Egypt’s Al-Qahera news channel.

Abbas, however, said he has “no other choice but to deal with him.”

Netanyahu, a former prime minister, was tasked on Sunday with forming the next Israeli government after his right-wing bloc won 64 seats in the 120-seat Knesset (Israel’s parliament).

Abbas said it is not possible to use the armed struggle against the decades-long Israeli occupation.

“We need now to use political tools,” he added.

On reconciliation with his rival Hamas group, Abbas, the leader of the Fatah movement, said the “doors are open” to achieve last month’s reconciliation deal mediated by Algeria.

“Hamas is required to recognize the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as a representative of the Palestinian people and to recognize international legitimacy,” he added.

Yet, Abbas said there are “important bodies” that don’t want reconciliation to be achieved. He did not name the “bodies”.

In 1993, the PLO and Israel signed the Oslo Accords, which gave Palestinians a form of civil rule, but negotiations failed to lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

US-sponsored peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel collapsed in April 2014 as Tel Aviv refused to stop settlement building and release Palestinian detainees imprisoned before 1993.