Abbas: Netanyahu speech offered 'nothing we can build on'

Abbas: Netanyahu speech offered ‘nothing we can build on’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress offered “nothing we can build on.”

By Marcy Oster May 25, 2011 12:26 pm

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress offered "nothing we can build on."

Abbas, speaking to the Palestine Liberation Organization and also with reporters on Wednesday in Ramallah, asserted that if no progress is made in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, he will go to the U.N. General Assembly in September seeking recognition of a unilaterally declared Palestinian state.

Abbas said that Netanyahu’s speech "traveled far from peace" and dictated final outcomes publicly instead of through negotiations.

"Our first choice is negotiations, but if there is no progress before September, we will go to the United Nations," Abbas said, according to the French news agency AFP.

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