Arrangements underway for Netanyahu-Abbas meet

Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Orgainsation (PLO), Yasser Abd Rabbo, announced on Thursday that arrangements are being prepared for a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said that statements made by some leaders of Hamas about secularism are a kind of" extreme hallucination" designed  to split apart the Palestinian people. Abd Rabbo added: "If there is a meeting, pre-conditions must be set by the Palestinian side and Israel should develop practical steps concerning the peace process,” noting: "communications are still ongoing and there are constant attempts to create a calm atmosphere and to relieve stress; but we fear that the meeting will not push forward the political process.” "The United States is mindful not to let the Palestinian side  have its rights from the United Nations," Rabbo said archly,  making  reference to President Abbas' negotiations to gain UN membership for the Palestinian state. Abd Rabbo admitted that Europe has acted positively towards Palestinian membership and is aware of the risk of  the continued Israeli settlement policy which he says is  "disabling the political settlement and the establishment of a Palestinian state," dismissing the possibility that the Vatican might rule against Jerusalem being the capital of a Palestinian state and an occupied city: “the Vatican will not contradict the policy of the entire international community.” Abd Rabbo condemned a statement issued  by Hamas leader, Fathi Hamad in which he said:: "No reconciliation with secularism". Abd Rabbo considered such talk  "as a kind of extreme hallucination and an attempt to split the Palestinian people and divide them into a religious stream and a secular one, at the exclusion of those who do not agree with the religious dogma represented by Hamas."  "These are Taliban ideas" Rabbo concluded.