Palestine to reconsider deals with Israel, US: Prez Abbas
Ramallah, May 14 (IANS) Palestine will reconsider the deals and understandings reached with both Israel and the US amid the former’s annexation plans, President Mahmoud Abbas has announced.
“We extended our hands to a just and comprehensive peace based on the resolutions of the international legitimacy. We still have a hope to achieve this but this won’t last for too long,” Abbas said on Wednesday.
He referred to the “ongoing violations that the Israeli government is practicing, besides continuing the crimes of settlement, which is a war crime under international law”, reports Xinhua news agency.
He accused Israel of turning its back to the signed agreements that had been reached with the Palestinian side.
Abbas also noted that “Israel, which is encouraged by the US”, was planning to annex lands in Palestine, mainly in East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.
“This fact will compel us to reconsider all the agreements, treaties and understandings which had been either reached with the state of occupation or with the US,” said Abbas.
He warned that the Palestinians won’t consider or abide by all these agreements and understandings “if the Israeli government declares the annexation of any part of our lands”.
Also on Wednesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ishtaye warned of a difficult stage the region will go through, if the Israeli government implemented its plan of annexing Palestinian lands.
Ishtaye unveiled that the Palestinian leadership will hold an important meeting on Saturday “to study facing Israel’s decision of annexing parts of the West Bank territories and imposing its sovereignty on it”.
Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement with Benny Gantz, the leader of Blue and White Party, to form a unity government.
They both agreed to impose Israeli sovereignty on the territories, which they called as “part of the historic lands of Israel” as of July 1.
On May 7, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said that American President Donald Trump’s administration supports Israel’s application of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
–IANS
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