Abbas: 2nd intifada was a mistake

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas admitted on Monday that the second intifada was a major mistake for the Palestinian people.

Army Radio quoted Abbas as saying in an interview with Egyptian television station Nile TV, “This was one of the biggest mistakes of our lives. (Former PA leader Yasser) Arafat did not want the second intifada to spread, but he was unable to stop it.

“My motto since the outbreak of the second intifada was that it must be stopped, because armed activity destroys us, and it indeed destroyed us,” he said, adding that Arafat was a “pragmatist rather than an extremist.”