Israel has never faced a better opportunity to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians than it has today under the leadership of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, President Shimon Peres told The Jerusalem Post in a pre-Independence Day interview on Tuesday.

“I think the Palestinian window is still open,” Peres said. “Everybody makes mistakes in his sayings and doings, but President Abbas is constant in his announced position – for peace, against terror, and for a two-state solution. I think we have never had a wider basis to conclude peace than under his leadership.”

Peres and Abbas were the architects of the Oslo Accords two decades ago, for which Peres received a Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.

Peres added that the need for a new peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians was “immediate,” and suggested that it could represent “a real contribution to pacify... the stormy Middle East.”