PA rejects Netanyahu demand on future military presence in W. Bank

The Palestinians on Thursday rejected any Israeli presence on the eastern border of their future state, which was demanded by Israel's prime minister. "The Palestinian leadership will not accept the presence of a single Israeli soldier in the Palestinian territories after the end of the occupation," Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for president Mahmud Abbas, told AFP.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said Israel would patrol the eastern border of any future state to prevent the smuggling of weapons.

But the Palestinians said they would insist on the full sovereignty of any future state. "We will not accept anything less than a completely sovereign Palestinian state on all the territories with its own borders, resources and airspace," Abu Rudeina conveyed. "We will not accept any Israeli presence, either military or civilian, on our land, and we will not accept that our state be under Israeli protection."

According to Abu Rudeina, Netanyahu's insistence on an Israeli border guard would "place more obstacles in the way of restarting peace talks."