Egypt's military chief meets with Abbas

Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces chief Hussein Tantawi met with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo on Saturday and discussed the peace process and other issues. Abbas thanked Egypt's ruling generals, the government and the people of Egypt for their efforts in achieving the successful deal to release some 1,027 Palestinian and Arab detainees in Israeli jails in exchange of an Israeli soldier who was detained in 2006 by Hamas, the militant group who now controls the Gaza Strip. He also praised Egypt's continued efforts to push forward reconciliation between all Palestinian factions. The meeting addressed the ongoing Palestinian efforts on the international arena to achieve the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people through the UN General Assembly as well as the mechanisms to be used in the upcoming period. At a meeting on Friday with chief editors of major Egyptian newspapers, Abbas said the Palestinians will return to the negotiating table if Israel accepts a statement of the Middle East Quartet which calls on both sides to resume peace talks. "The Palestine Liberation Organization accepted the Quartet's last statement. We informed that to its all parties. We asked them to convince Israel to accept it," Abbas said, according to MENA. He said the Palestinians are ready to return to talks if Israel accepts the pre-1976 borders and brings settlement building to a halt. The Palestinians will not withdraw their U.N. statehood request even if peace negotiations with Israel are resumed, said Abbas. "We have already submitted the request and we will go ahead until the end," Abbas said. The Palestinian leader said the UN statehood bid will impose a new reality in which the Palestinian territories will become a state occupied by another state. The Middle East Quartet -- the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States -- issued a statement on Sept. 23 to call on the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume peace negotiations within one month, just as the Palestinians applied for full membership at the UN Security Council earlier in the day. The group proposed that the parties present comprehensive proposals within three months on territory and security, make substantial progress within six months, and reach an overall agreement by the end of 2012.