Abbas Wants NATO Troops in Future State

clipped from www.newsmaxworld.com JERUSALEM - The Palestinian Authority is considering allowing the permanent stationing of NATO forces in the future Palestinian state, London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi reported Palestinian sources saying Wednesday. The NATO forces would be able to prevent arms smuggling into the future state and to monitor that it would remain demilitarized. Under any peace agreement likely to be formulated between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel would expect the Palestinian entity to remain demilitarized. The Palestinian Authority will also ask NATO and the US to commit to “defending the Palestinian state from Israel," were relations to break down and were Israel to threaten the future Palestinian state with invasion, the report said. Meanwhile, PLO general-secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo said on Wednesday that Israel was not interested in negotiations and would do everything to derail them as soon as possible, Israel Radio reported.

Related articles by Zemanta

• PLO Committee Approves Participation in Peace Talks (Update3) (businessweek.com)
• PLO Committee Approves Participation in Peace Talks (Update2) (businessweek.com)
• Is Mahmoud Abbas 'sick'? (trueslant.com)
• Abbas Agrees to Indirect Talks Following PLO Approval (Update1) (businessweek.com)
• Palestinian leaders agree to indirect talks with Israel (cnn.com)