Ankara: The leaders of Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, in a rare joint appearance before a foreign legislature, pledged support yesterday for planned Middle East peace talks in the United States this month.
In addresses to Turkey's parliament, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the conference at Annapolis, Maryland, in late November would provide a vital chance to kickstart the stalled peace process.
"This is a historic occasion which must not become a historic failure," Peres said in his speech, delivered in Hebrew and dubbed into Turkish in live television coverage.
"We are determined to reach a two-state solution for our two peoples, a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people and a Jewish state for the Jewish people."
Peres, a veteran statesman, has now a largely ceremonial role as president and does not speak for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government which decides policy.
"We support the American efforts [to revive the peace process] ... We extend our hand for dialogue," Abbas told the lawmakers, in remarks translated into Turkish from Arabic.
Abbas, who like Peres steered clear of details in his speech, has been badly weakened by the seizure of the Gaza Strip by his Hamas opponents last June. Hamas opposes Abbas's peace efforts with Israel.
Even as Abbas spoke in Ankara, Hamas was rounding up dozens of activists from his secular Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip one day after a Fatah rally of more than 200,000 people ended in gunfire that killed seven people.
Diplomatic drive
Muslim, but secular, Turkey invited Peres and Abbas to address its parliament as part of Ankara's diplomatic drive to increase its own profile in the Middle East region.
Turkey is one of the few countries in the region to have good relations with both Israel and the Palestinians as well as with the Jewish state's regional foes, Iran and Syria.
On Monday, Turkey told Peres it was trying to help free two Israeli soldiers captured by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters last year. Their seizure triggered a brief war in which around 1,200 people in Lebanon and more than 150 Israelis died.
Earlier yesterday, Peres, Abbas and Turkey's President Abdullah Gul attended a signing ceremony of a framework accord to set up an industrial zone in the Palestinian West Bank, which is controlled by Abbas' Fatah faction.
Turkish firms will invest in the zone, which is designed to help tackle serious unemployment among Palestinians. Earlier in the day, Abbas said, Israel will live in peace if it ends its occupation of Arab lands.
"If there is peace between Israel and the Palestinians and the occupation of Arab lands ends, Israel will also live in a sea of peace, security and stability in the Middle East," Abbas told a joint press conference here with Peres and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.
"If this happens, there will no longer be wars or enmity and all the peoples in the region will live in security and stability," the Palestinian leader said.
