Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted Friday that he would not accept any US plans for Mideast peace because of President Trump’s decision to recognize…
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted Friday that he would not accept any US plans for Mideast peace because of President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
In a Christmas letter to Christians, Abbas cited the White House’s “biased” support of Israel and its settlement policy.
The American plan “is not going to be based on the two-state solution on the 1967 border, nor is it going to be based on international law or UN resolutions,” he wrote, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Abbas’ letter was sent as he met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris a day after the UN General Assembly voted 128-9 in favor of a resolution denouncing Trump’s decision.
Sources close to Abbas told Haaretz that his letter was written in wake of Trump’s decision on Jerusalem, which the Palestinian leader described as an “insult to millions of people worldwide, and also to the city of Bethlehem.”
“This time every year, the souls of billions of people turn to Bethlehem to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the messenger of love, peace and justice,” Abbas wrote.
“Bethlehem, the birthplace of hope, continues to be affected by Israeli policies. Regretfully, the U. S. has decided to reward such policies by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“It is because of this US decision to support illegality and the blatant violations of our rights, that we will not accept the US as the mediator in the peace process nor are we going to accept any plan from the US side. The US chose to be biased,” he wrote.
A senior Palestinian official who was involved in the writing of the letter told the Israeli news outlet that the Palestinian leadership had not received any information on the peace plan supposedly being prepared by the White House.
Haaretz also reported that Abbas sent his close adviser Nabil Sha’ath to Russia for talks with senior officials in the Kremlin, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Sha’ath will address the possibility of Moscow taking a more active role in the peace process, along with other nations such as China and France, according to the outlet.
During a news conference in Paris, Abbas also urged France and other European countries to play a stronger role in peace efforts, saying the US is “no longer an honest mediator in the peace process.”
He also denounced the US threat to cut financial aid for countries that voted to back the nonbinding resolution.
“We call upon countries that did not recognize Palestine yet to do so to preserve the two-state solution before it’s too late,” he said.
The French president reaffirmed his disapproval of Trump’s decision about Jerusalem but was careful not to take sides, saying “the American mistake was to want to unilaterally manage from afar a situation whose solution is in the hands of the Israelis and Palestinians.”
Macron recalled that he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this month in Paris, where he urged him to make “courageous gestures” to help revive peace talks, including freezing Israel’s construction of settlements on occupied lands.
European Union leaders, including Macron, have reiterated support for establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
With Post Wires
