Abbas: We will not compromise Jerusalem as future capital of Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the Palestinians will not compromise on having Jerusalem as the future capital of the Palestinian state, and threatened to go to the UN if Israel breaches an earlier agreement to release Palestinian prisoners as a condition for resuming the peace negotiations.

Abbas told Palestinian satellite television that: “We will not compromise the 1967 borders as the future borders of our country Palestine, and there will be no peace without Jerusalem, as it is our capital.” He stressed that the ongoing negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis are based on accepting the 1967 borders with the possibility of limited exchanges of land, and that the Jewish state is not Palestine’s concern.

Abbas said that the Palestinian leadership had agreed to postpone the accession of Palestine into international bodies and organisations for a period of nine months in return for the release of 104 pre-Oslo prisoners, warning Israel against breaching the agreement to release 26 prisoners every three months.