Abbas rejects 'temporary' Palestine state

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RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 5 (UPI) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected an interim agreement with Israel Saturday and called for Palestine to join the United Nations.

Speaking in Ramallah alongside visiting Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, Abbas said, "We know there was an idea in the past to establish a state within temporary borders, and if this idea is raised again, we won't accept it," Israel's Ynetnews reported.

He said the time has come to declare a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders that would join the United Nations in September.

Abbas voiced his opposition to an interim agreement Thursday, and sources in Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office told Ynetnews he probably would drop the idea.

The Palestinian leader also called on the Quartet -- Europe, the United States, Russia and the United Nations -- to take all steps "to end the Israeli aggression and the occupation of our land."

Pinera, who recognized an independent Palestinian state in January, said the Palestinians "should have a sovereign state and freedom of movement."

"They must be allowed to live in peace with all their neighbors in the region," he said.