Responding to Netanyahu, Abbas spokesman says no regional security without Palestinian state

The spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says there can be “no security and stability in the region” without a Palestinian state.

The remarks come in response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection Thursday of calls by the United States to take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war.

The comments from Abbas’s office echo those made hours earlier by US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller who argued that Israel’s longterm security is contingent on the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state in order to solve the conflict.

“Without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of 1967, there will be no security and stability in the region,” Palestinian state news agency Wafa quotes Abbas’ spokesperson Nabil Abu Rdeineh as saying. The Palestinians seek Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem — which were captured by Israel in 1967 — for their future state.