Kerry asks Abbas to extend peace talks with Israel

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to extend the current peace negotiations with Israel for an additional nine months, a Palestinian official said on Thursday. The Palestinian ambassador to France, Hayel al-Fahoom, told the state-run Voice of Palestine radio that Kerry proposed the extension during his Wednesday meeting with Abbas in Paris. However, Abbas dismissed the idea of extending the current nine- month peace talks with Israel which will end this April, al-Fahoom said. Abbas has repeatedly refused to extend the peace negotiations with Israel, saying that negotiators need to focus on the remaining time. The Palestinian diplomat said Kerry and Abbas held in-depth talks on Wednesday and added they will meet again on Thursday to resume discussions over the peace plan framework Kerry is preparing and supposed to propose soon. Kerry's framework for peace tackles final status issues including the borders of the future Palestinian state, Palestinian refugees, security and the contested status of Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital. Meanwhile, spokesman for Abbas Nabil Abu Rdeneh told state-run Palestinian news agency Wafa that Abbas will not accept any agreement that does not recognize Palestinian rights. Abu Rdeneh said the borders of the future Palestinian state must follow the borders of the lands occupied by Israel in 1967, while stressing that a "just solution" must be found to the issue of the Palestinian refugees. "We will not accept a Palestinian state without East Jerusalem as its capital. We will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state," he was quoted by Wafa as saying. A Palestinian recognition of Israel as Jewish state would end the dream of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, who desire to return to the homes they fled during the conflict with Israel in 1948. Also on Wednesday, a Palestinian official source told Xinhua that stark differences remain between Palestinians and Israel over the controversial idea of land swaps, which aims to solve the issue of Jewish settlements in the West Bank after a peace deal is reached. "There are also grave differences over the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state," the official said on condition of anonymity. Since the resumption of the current Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations last July, Kerry has been working to narrow the gap between the two sides on a framework plan for peace that could end their prolonged conflict. However, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators announced on various occasions that peace talks have not made any tangible progress.