Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas acknowledged on Monday that time is running out for peace talks with Israel during a meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House.
"We don't have any time to waste," Abbas said to the American president, in front of gathered press. "Time is not on our side, especially given the very difficult situation that the Middle East is experiencing and the entire region is facing."
The meeting comes at a fragile time in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Both sides have expressed pessimism in recent days that they will be able to find common ground on the "big ticket issues," Secretary of State John Kerry said last week, noting that trust between the two sides had reached a nadir.
In the Oval Office, Abbas said that he and his predecessors have extended their hands to Israel, recognizing the state according to "international legitimacy resolutions" since 1988.
By invoking that political marker for his organization, Abbas was referencing former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat's recognition of Israel's Jewish character— mentioned over 30 times in United Nations Resolution 181, a document respected by the PLO.
"This was a very courageous step on the part of the Palestinian leadership," Abbas stated. "And in 1993, we recognized the state of Israel."
But Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is calling on Abbas to publicly declare Israel the Jewish homeland, a condition he considers a "minimal requirement for peace" and fundamental to the conflict. Abbas has said there is "no way" he will acquiesce to that demand.
Abbas also called for a "fair and lasting solution to the refugee problem."
Kerry and US special envoy to the Middle East peace process Martin Indyk stood in the historic room, prepared to engage the two leaders in a discussion over ongoing peace talks, now nearing the end of a nine-month timetable fixed by the secretary of state himself.
When those talks began last summer, Israel agreed to release prisoners in batches as a peace offering to the Palestinian Authority. The last batch of those prisoners is scheduled for release by March 29, Abbas reminded the president in the Monday morning meeting.
Some Israeli government officials have suggested scrapping the release as negotiations flounder with the Palestinians.
"We remain convinced there is an opportunity," Obama said of the peace process. "It’s very hard. It’s very challenging. We’re going to have to take some tough political decisions and risks if we’re able to move it forward."
But Obama said that peace remained an "elusive goal," though the details of such a peace accord are known to all: "a territorial compromise on both sides," the president said, "based on ‘67 lines with mutually agreed upon swaps that would ensure that Israel was secure but would also ensure that the Palestinians have a sovereign state."
Unlike in his State of the Union address, Obama made no mention of Israel's Jewish character in his remarks with the Palestinian premiere on Monday.
Just two weeks prior, Obama hosted Netanyahu in his office for a briefing on the talks. At that time, the Israeli leader publicly declared that Abbas had not done his part in preparing the Palestinian people for a peace accord that recognized two states for two peoples.
Obama pushed back against that notion during Abbas' visit on Monday.
"He has been somebody who has consistently renounced violence," Obama said, sitting next to him in front of a pool of cameras, noting that Abbas has the confidence of his administration as leader in pursuit of lasting peace.