\r\n\tIsrael's hawkish president-elect Reuven Rivlin, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, has said he is willing to meet counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, a newspaper reported Thursday.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\t"I met with Abu Mazen (Abbas) in the past on a number of occasions and I will also meet with him in the future," the Yediot Aharonot newspaper quoted Rivlin as saying.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\t"We both realize that direct dialogue is the condition for our Middle East to be a safe place," he said on Wednesday at a three-day conference in al-Quds for Israeli media.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\tRivlin said he received a letter from Abbas after he was elected on June 10 to succeed elder statesman Shimon Peres, whose term ends in late July.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\tYediot published what it said was an image of the letter, in Arabic, which congratulated Rivlin and called for a peace agreement and an independent Palestine.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\tThe incoming president is a staunch backer of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and has never hidden his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\tSettlements were a key issue that derailed the latest round of so-called US-backed peace talks in April after nine months of fruitless negotiations.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\tRivlin, a former military intelligence officer and lawyer by profession, was quoted in 2010 as saying he would "rather accept Palestinians as Israeli citizens than divide Israel and the West Bank in a future two-state peace solution."<\/p>","content_source":null,"content_url":null,"content_columns":"0","content_date_start":"2014-06-26 21:44:37","content_date_finish":"2014-06-26 21:44:37","content_date_register":"2014-06-26 21:44:37","content_date_last_edit":"0000-00-00 00:00:00","content_show_img":"1","content_show_details":"1","content_show_related_img":"1","content_show_slider":"1","content_show_title_slider":"1","content_comment":"0","content_score":"0","content_recorded":"0","content_confirmed":"1","content_status":"1","content_kind":"0","old_id":"122597","tag_id":null,"tag_word":null,"tag_service":null,"tag_total":null,"tag_soundex":null,"attach_token":"3454430568","attach_date_register":"2014-06-26 21:44:41","attach_id":"120289","attach_file_ext":"jpg","attach_file_header":"image\/jpeg","attach_img_type":"2","attach_img_width":"300","attach_img_height":"200","attach_file_media":"1","attach_show_watermark":"0","score_average":null,"score_count":null,"score_date_last":null,"visit_count":"189","visit_date_last":"2025-05-10 15:39:05","attach_title":"Hawkish new Israel president ready to meet Abbas","node_title":"news","ot_node_left_right":"[{\"node_id\":122, \"left\":2, \"right\":53}]"}]]