Preempting Monday’s visit to Cairo by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), PA Prime Minister Salim Fayyad announced the future Palestinian state will be free of “fences and settlements”, making his comments during a Ramallah area conference. The PA prime minister issued a call to the international community to compel Israel to adhere to international law and to cease trampling the “rights of the Palestinians”.

Fayyad called to an end of referencing past agreements and the current “transition period”, insisting the time have come to move forward towards the establishment of the Palestinian state.

In the meantime, Abu Mazen will be meeting in Cairo on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Chief of Intelligence General Ibrahim Suleiman. While reports surrounding the meeting speak of the PA’s interest in resuming diplomatic talks with Israel, statements released by the PA leader paint a contradictory picture, one signaling an unwillingness to return to the negotiating table, preferring to continue announcing preconditions to such a move.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)