Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud AbbasHadas Parush/Flash 90

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday adopted a soft tone with respect to the appointment of Avigdor Liberman as Defense Minister.

“We should not judge a person by their particular nation or by opinions, but according to his position on the peace process,” Abbas said at a meeting with Israeli Arab mayors, according to Army Radio.

“The Israeli right has the ability to initiate a peace process, but we ask all Israelis to believe in peace with the Palestinian people,” he added.

Abbas also discussed Egyptian President Abdel Fatth Al-Sisi’s peace initiative and said that there is a need to take advantage of the initiative and work together with other Arab and Muslim countries to improve ties with Israel, provided it agrees to withdraw from Judea and Samaria.

On Monday, shortly after being sworn in as Defense Minister, Liberman was quick to announce that he supports the “two-state solution” to solve the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict, and also backed Sisi’s call for an Israeli-Palestinian a peace agreement.

Earlier on Tuesday, Liberman hinted about his diplomatic policy in a conversation with the IDF's top generals, saying, “When there is a conflict between the values of the unity of the nation or the wholeness of the land, the unity of the nation comes first.”