Kerry, Abbas to Meet in Paris on Wednesday


Kerry, Abbas to Meet in Paris on Wednesday

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris on Wednesday to discuss peace talks with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said.

The official said Abbas would leave for France on Tuesday for the meeting, which he said had been requested by Kerry, who is currently in Abu Dhabi.

The top US diplomat has spent months trying to get Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a framework for resolving their decades-old conflict, but the negotiations have shown little sign of progress, with each side blaming the other, AFP reported.

Abbas said on Sunday he was not looking "to flood Israel" with returning Palestinian refugees, at a rare meeting with 250 Israeli students at his West Bank headquarters.

He also said there was no need to "re-divide" Jerusalem in order to have a Palestinian capital in the Arab eastern sector, a central demand of the Palestinians in the peace talks relaunched last year.

"Propaganda says Abu Mazen (Abbas’ nickname) wants to flood Israel with five million refugees to destroy the state of Israel," he told the group at his Muqataa presidential compound in Ramallah.

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