Damascus - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas sought a unified Arab stance on negotiations
with Israel during their meeting in Damascus on Saturday, a
Palestinian spokesman said.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, chief Palestinian
negotiator Saeb Erekat said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's speech last week outlining his government's policy on the
Israeli-Arab conflict had made clear the necessity of a joint Arab
stance.
'There should be greater cooperation among Arabs, especially
considering that the policies Netanyahu unveiled in his speech do not
live up to the minimum demands of the Arabs,' Erekat said.
He had initially called the speech 'a slap in the face.'
Abbas heads the Fatah faction, which controls the West Bank. Syria
hosts political leaders from such rival Palestinian factions as
Hamas, who take a harder line on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Egyptian-brokered negotiations on a Palestinian 'national unity'
government have faltered over whether the new government would
recognize Israel and abandon violence, among other issues. Hamas has
so far refused to do either.
'The Syrian and the Palestinian presidents' positions are
similar,' Erekat said in Damascus. 'They share a belief in a just and
comprehensive peace in exchange for total withdrawal' from the
territories Israel occupied in its 1967 war with Arab states.
He added that al-Assad had expressed his support for Egyptian
efforts to reconcile rival Palestinian factions.
Erekat said Abbas and al-Assad had discussed Abbas' meetings with
US President Barack Obama last month, and both of their meetings with
his Middle East envoy, George Mitchell.
Abbas is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on
Sunday, before continuing to Egypt and Jordan.
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