Ramallah, March 20 (IANS) As the US urged the Palestinians to extend peace talks with Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday said he will advocate Palestinian rights during negotiations with Israel.
"I will not give away the Palestinian rights," Abbas told hundreds of loyalists at his office upon his arrival in Ramallah after a four-day visit to Washington to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations with US President Barack Obama.
Earlier, a Palestinian official source told Xinhua that the discussions between Abbas and Obama were difficult and not decisive.
He added that they had reached no agreement on the American framework for the peace deal or on extending the peace talks with Israel.
"Obama focused on extending the talks instead of focusing on the US framework of the peace agreement," the official said.
"It was obvious that Obama was concerned about avoiding any American failure in the peace talks," he added.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Abbas asked Obama to press Israel to release prisoners from its jails and freeze settlement activities in order to extend the current peace talks.
Many Palestinians consider that meeting these two demands are essential for finding peace.
Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed last July and are set to end in April, but both Israeli and Palestinian officials have said no tangible progress has been made during negotiations.
Since the resumption of the peace negotiations, the US has been leading mediation efforts to get the Palestinians and the Israelis to agree on a framework plan for peace.
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