Abbas on Sunday slammed Israel's decision to withhold Palestinian tax revenues and build on the E1 corridor.
Speaking at an Arab League meeting in Doha, Qatar, Abbas said Israel doesn't have the right to withhold Palestinian money from the Palestinian National Authority, and the move would force them to formulate a "new strategy" in response.
Palestinian news agency Ma'an quoted Abbas as saying whenever Israel is "upset with anybody in the world, it withholds Palestinian money, and they don’t have a right to do that."
He added that Israel must stop settlement building in order to return to the negotiating table, praising the Arab Peace Initiative by Saudi Arabia in 2002 as a simple initiative calling on Israel to withdraw from Arab lands in exchange for "normalized relations with Israel" from all Islamic and Arab countries.
Abbas also said that Hamas and Fatah wanted to overcome their differences. "The reconciliation is dear to us and to the unity of our people, especially in the present time, when we are talking about a Palestinian state and about getting something new," he said, but stressed talks with Israel.
"If we put aside the negotiating table, the alternative would be war," Abbas told envoys at the meeting in Doha. "Are we ready for war? I say no."
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