Israel, Jerusalem, 5 May /corr. Trend R.Abdullayev / The President of Israel doubts that a political agreement will be reached with Palestine by the end of this year with regards to the establishment of a Palestinian State. "This takes place not due to any serious differences existing between the Palestinian and our positions," the President Shimon Peres said to a press-conference.
During the conference on the Middle East in London on 2 May, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, did not exclude that an independent Palestinian State may be established on the western bank of Jordan River by the end of 2008 as a result of intensive talks.
According to the President of Israel, the talks came to a dead end as a result of a weakness in the Palestinian leadership and a dispute between the key two Palestinian parties - FATH and HAMAS. "We want peace with the Palestinians. We want the government of Mahmud Abbas to engage in economy and to improve the standard of living of the people. The country cannot survive without economy," Peres said.
According to Peres, Mahmud Abbas does not govern Gaza, but the sector is being controlled by HAMAS. "Losing the Gaza sector shook Abbas's authority and made it very difficult to reach an agreement with Israel," Peres said.
President Peres said that the Palestinian terror remains a key reason due to which the Palestinians still do not have an independent State. According to him, if terrorism did not exist, the Palestinian State would have occurred several years ago.
Peres said that he initiated an international conference "Let's appeal to tomorrow" dedicated to Independence Day of Israel. The conference will be attended by 13 current State Heads, five ex-Presidents, three Prime Ministers, four Foreign Ministers, eight laureates of Nobel Prize and 800 delegates from 30 leading countries worldwide. The event is expected to be attended by the Presidents of the USA, Georgia, Ukraine, Croatia, Albania, Poland, Mongolia, Slovakia and Hungary.