Abbas's news conference in Tunisia

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas affirmed that there can be no coexistence with Israël without its withdrawal to the frontiers of 1967 and the settlement of the issues of the final stage of negotiations relating to the guarantee of refugees'right to return, criticising the provocative declarations of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman in which he linked between the legitimate claims of the Paslestinian people and terrorism.At a news conference held on Friday, he also stressed that Israel is not seeking peace with Palestinians when its Foreign Minister says : "we are limited to only the security and economic fields," adding that Israël "had punished the Palestinians" after their bid for full UNESCO membership was approved, through seising customs revenues. Abbas outlined that negotiations with Islamist "Hamas" movement are going on to form a technocrat government whose mission will end with the holding of general elections, announcing his meeting with "Hamas" leader Khaled Mechaal to discuss the future of the Palestinian cause and consult each other on the different pending issues between both sides. At the end of his meeting last Thursday with several leaders of Tunisian political parties, Abbas had affirmed that he had perceived among them a definite commitment to support the Palestinian cause, which confirms the stands expressed in Tunisia since independence. He also said that this meeting had provided him with the occasion to congratulate the winners of the elections which he described as "fair'' and "transparent", voicing total trust in the impartiality of the Tunisian justice in the case of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's widow. On the other hand, the Palestinian President declared that the Palestinians are neutral as regards the developments that happened on the Arab scene, stressing "the Palestinian authority is keeping equal distance from all parties, in Syria as in Tunisia, Egypt or Libya, whether they are Islamist, nationalist or leftist parties for these are, he concluded, strictly internal affairs .