President Mahmoud Abbas said today that the Israeli government is responsible for the deterioration on the ground today because it has undermined the two-state solution and violated the signed agreements.
Speaking with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, President Abba also blamed the international community for failing to dismantle the Israeli occupation and end its settlement regime.
“We welcome you, and we affirm that the Israeli government is responsible for what is happening today, because of its practices that undermine the two-state solution and violate the signed agreements, and because of the lack of international efforts to dismantle the occupation, end the settlement regime, and the failure to recognize the Palestinian state and its full membership in the United Nations,” said President Abbas.
“The continued opposition to the efforts of the Palestinian people to defend their existence and their legitimate rights in international forums and courts, and to provide international protection for our people, is a policy that encourages the Israeli occupier to commit more crimes and violates international law,” he added.
“This comes at a time when Israel is being overlooked, without deterrence or accountability, as it continues its unilateral operations, including settlements, actual annexation of lands, settler terror, storming Palestinian territory, killing crimes, house demolitions, forcible displacement of Palestinians, changing the identity of Jerusalem, and violating the historical status quo and the violation of the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the seizure of funds, and the accompanying operations of ethnic cleansing and apartheid,” added the President.
“After we exhausted all means with Israel to stop its violations, derogate from the signed agreements, and not commit to stopping its unilateral actions, we took a number of decisions, which we began to implement in order to protect the interests due of our people,” he said, stressing that “the complete cessation of unilateral Israeli actions, which violate the signed agreements and international law, is the main entry point for returning the political horizon, ending the occupation in accordance with international references and the Arab Peace Initiative, in order to make peace, stability and security for all in our region and the world.”
President Abbas said that “we have always shown commitment to the resolutions of international legitimacy, renunciation of violence and terrorism, and respect for signed agreements. We are now ready to work with the US administration and the international community to restore political dialogue in order to end the Israeli occupation of the land of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” adding, “Our people will not accept the continuation of the occupation forever, and regional security will not be strengthened by violating the sanctity of the Holy sites, trampling on the dignity of the Palestinian people and ignoring their legitimate rights to freedom, dignity and independence.”
Meanwhile, Blinken expressed his condolences to the families of Palestinians killed in the violence.
He said the US administration opposes any action by either side that makes the two-state solution, to which President Joe Biden is committed, very difficult to achieve, adding that this includes settlement expansion, legalization of settlement outposts, demolition and eviction of homes, disruption of the status quo of holy sites, and incitement and acquiescence to violence regarding of the side behind it or the perpetrators.
The Secretary of State said the US is also working on reopening the US consulate in East Jerusalem closed by the former administration under Donald Trump.
He said this step and others, including announcing new support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugee (UNRWA) with $50 million, are part of the efforts to built US relations with the Palestinian people and Palestinian Authority.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency