国际英语新闻：Abbas: moving to direct talks without progress is "absurd"

GAZA, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that moving to the face-to-face negotiations with Israel without making a progress in the indirect proximity talks will be "absurd and useless."

Abbas said during a religious ceremony to commemorate Prophet Mohamed's Night Journey, better known as al-Esra night, that "if there is no progress in the proximity talks, what would be the benefits of moving to the direct talks?"

"The direct talks will be then absurd and useless, therefore, we had informed all the international parties that we want to achieve a progress first," said Abbas. "These are our ideas and we wait to hear from the Israeli side."

The United States, which failed to bring the two sides to direct talks, proposed four-month proximity talks to bridge the gaps between them and agree on the outlines of the permanent status issues.

The proximity talks were officially launched by U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell on May 9.

"Since the beginning of the proximity talks, we spoke about the six major issues, known as the permanent status issues. We agreed to focus first on the issues of borders and security," said Abbas.