US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken continues his visit to the region and met today (Tuesday) in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen.
During their meeting, Abbas said that Israel is the one who must bear responsibility for what is happening due to its actions to destroy the two-state solution and the violation of the signed agreements. In addition to the lack of investment of an international effort "to dismantle the occupation and stop the settlements regime, alongside non-recognition of a Palestinian state with full membership in the United Nations".
"Israel continues to take unilateral measures, including the construction in the settlements, the actual annexation of the territories, the terrorism of the settlers, the invasion of the Palestinian areas and the crimes of killing, the demolition of houses and the deportation of the Palestinian residents, the change of the identity of Jerusalem and the damage to the historical situation of Al-Aqsa, the possession of the tax money and acts of ethnic cleansing and apartheid," accused Abbas.
Condemning construction in the settlement.
Abu Mazen and Blinken, photo: AP
Abbas also referred to the Palestinian Authority's announcement from last week to freeze security coordination with Israel.
"We made several decisions and began to implement them in order to protect the interests of our people, after exhausting all other means vis-à-vis Israel in order to stop Israel's violations and reneging on the signed agreements."
He also said that the Palestinian leadership expresses a willingness to work with the American administration and the international community and that "a complete halt to Israel's unilateral steps is the fundamental opening to the return of the political horizon, to the end of the occupation in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations and the Arab peace initiative in order to bring peace, stability and security to our region.
Our people will not accept the continuation of the occupation forever."
Blinken's picture was burned in the Gaza Strip, photo: AFP
Blinken, for his part, said that quick steps must be taken to reduce the violence and announced that the US will transfer an additional 50 million dollars in aid to UNRWA (for Palestinian refugees), and will continue to work on reopening the American consulate in Jerusalem.
He also noted that an agreement was reached to provide 4G communication services to the Palestinians.
"We see that the Palestinians have a diminishing horizon of hope and that needs to change. The lives of the Palestinians must be improved and we discussed ways to do that," he said.
He noted that President Biden is committed to the two-state principle.
"We oppose any action by any of the parties that makes it difficult to implement this solution, including the construction in the settlements. We also oppose the policy of destruction, deportation and damage to the historical situation in the holy areas."
In the Gaza Strip they stepped on Blinken's picture and burned it.
"No to the American policy that sponsors the terror of the occupation."
Before the meeting with Blinken, Abbas met in Muqatea with the Egyptian and Jordanian intelligence chiefs to discuss security tensions in the region.
He also met with representatives of civil society and non-governmental organizations.
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