Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/leaders-struggle-to-revive-israeli-palestinian-talks Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with President Bush Thursday in a bid to provide a needed boost to U.S.-backed peace negotiations with Israel. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman discuss the state of the talks. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. MARGARET WARNER: President Bush has been meeting Mideast leaders in Washington this week, part of his effort to help broker an Israeli-Palestinian accord by the end of his term.Today he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. I talked earlier this evening with one of the participants in that meeting, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.Mr. Erekat, welcome. SAEB EREKAT, Chief Palestinian Negotiator: Thank you, Margaret. MARGARET WARNER: President Abbas went into this meeting, he made very clear, wanting to have President Bush put more pressure on the Israelis on a lot of the issues that divide you with the Israelis, especially the question of Israeli settlements and the expansion of settlements. Did you come out of that meeting with any confidence that the Bush administration is ready to do more? SAEB EREKAT: I believe we were in a very serious, in-depth meeting today with President Bush. And I think the message of President Abbas to President Bush today was, "Time is of the essence."Time is running out on us, as Palestinians, as a Palestinian moderate leadership. If we have an agreement with Israel by the end of the year, we win. If we don't have an agreement by the end of the year, Hamas wins. This is as simple as you want to put it.So President Abbas walked President Bush through the last five months since Annapolis of all the details of the negotiations. Gaps still exist. And then he walked him through the non-compliance of Israel, as far as settlement activities are concerned, and he described the settlement activities as the most major obstacle undermining our efforts in this peace process.President Bush said he wants to reassure us and President Abbas that he wants to see a Palestinian state that's viable. And he used the term, I think, not a "Swiss cheese state," referring to these Israeli settlements.President Bush reiterated his commitment that he wants to make the agreement before the end of the year. He'll be sending Dr. Rice to the region next week. He'll be coming himself to the region in three weeks' time, where he's scheduled now to meet President Abbas in Egypt.