Abbas says he met with Barak in Amman last month

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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday claimed to have met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Amman last month.

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Abbas also claimed to have met with President Shimon Peres in London, Amman and Rome. He said that he was scheduled to meet with Peres again at the end of July but the meeting was canceled by Peres for undisclosed reasons.

Abbas said that despite the impasse in the peace process, security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel was ongoing.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=236751
The PA president said that security cooperation was necessary to maintain calm and prevent terror and he vowed that their would be security as long as he was in power.

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=236751

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1. Abbas Affirms Palestinian Bid at U.N.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority said Monday that he was going to the United Nations this month to seek membership for a state of Palestine not instead of negotiations with Israel but in addition to them. His goal, he said, was for a Palestinian state and Israel to live in peace and security next to one another.

Even after any recognition by the United Nations, he said, his hope is to negotiate with Israel.

“Our first, second and third priority is negotiations,” he said. “There is no other way to solve this. No matter what happens at the United Nations, we have to return to negotiations.”

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said at a separate event that a Palestinian bid for recognition by the United Nations would “set back peace, and might set it back for years.” Israeli officials argue that a resolution recognizing a Palestinian state could complicate the prospect of talks beyond salvation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/world/middleeast/06palestinians.html

[oberliner]

2. This will surely turn out well for all

I predict decades of peace and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians from October 2011 onwards.