Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday called for participants at an international peace conference to make “the peace of the brave” during opening addresses at the one-day Israeli-Palestinian negotiation session. “Let us make a peace of the brave and protect that peace in the interests of our children,” Abbas said here at Annapolis, Maryland. Abbas called on Palestinians everywhere to “have confidence in the future, in tomorrow.” “Future Palestine is coming, because this is the promise of the whole world to you. The dawn is coming,” he said. “We are facing a test of our credibility as a whole,” he added. “We have to start comprehensive and deep negotiations on all issues of final status ... We have to support this negotiation process with concrete and direct steps on the ground.” Abbas made direct reference to some of the on-the-ground issues, including the need for Israel to remove roadblocks, release prisoners and end all settlement building and expansion. He also reiterated that Palestinians “need East Jerusalem to be our capital.”
