"We call on President Obama and the Mideast Quartet (Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations) to pressure Netanyahu to accept the 1967 borders," Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
"Netanyahu`s position is an official rejection of Mr Obama`s initiative, of international legitimacy and of international law."
For his part, top Palestine Liberation Organisation official Yasser Abed Rabbo said the "PLO favourably welcomes the Obama principles on the 1967 borders."
"If Israel accepts the Obama principles, we are ready to resume direction negotiations very soon.
In that context, he said Israel must choose between Obama`s call for a Palestinian state within 1967 borders or recognition of a state by the United Nations, which the Palestinians have threatened to push for in September.
In a keynote policy speech on Thursday, Obama included a clear call for Israel and the Palestinians to use the lines that existed before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war as the basis for talks to achieve a negotiated solution to the conflict.
Netanyahu has long opposed such a formulation, and his office issued a blunt statement on Friday saying such a scheme would leave Israel "indefensible" and isolate major Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Those two positions are expected to be a central point of discussions taking place between Obama and Netanyahu at the White House on Friday.
Abu Rudeina also said Abbas considers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s opposition to a reconciliation deal between the Palestinian president`s moderate Fatah party and the Islamist group Hamas to be "unacceptable interference" in Palestinian affairs. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
