Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has denied giving up on the refugees' right of return, saying remarks about not returning to his home town, which is now in Israel, were only a "personal position."
"I have never and will never give up the right of return," he told Egypt's Al-Hayatt Egyptian satellite channel, according to a transcript released yesterday.
Abbas sought to explain remarks he made in an interview with Israel's Channel 2 on Friday in which he appeared to renege on the right of Palestinian refugees to return to homes they either fled from or were forced out of during the 1948 war that attended Israel's creation.
"I want to see Safed," he told Channel 2, referring to the town where he grew up which is now in northern Israel. "It's my right to see it but not to live there."
His remarks were hailed as "courageous" by Israeli President Shimon Peres but sparked fury in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, where thousands poured onto the streets in protest.
"Talking about Safed is a personal position and does not mean giving up the right of return," he told Al-Hayatt. "No one can give up the right of return, as all international texts and Arab and Islamic decisions refer to a just and agreed solution to the refugee issue, according to UN Resolution 194, with the term 'agreed on' meaning agreed with the Israeli side," he said.