PARIS, January 14, 2017 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that the upcoming international peace conference on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict planned to be held in Paris on Sunday in the presence of 70 countries and four international organizations could be the last chance for the implementation of the two-state solution.
“We as Palestinians say enough. After 70 years of dispersion and 50 years of occupation, 2017 should be the year for peace and freedom for our people,” Abbas told the French Le Figaro newspaper.
President Abbas warned against plans by the new US administration to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem saying that such a step “could kill the peace process and compel the Palestinians to retract their recognition of the state of Israel.”
He said he wrote US President-elect Donald Trump “to ask him not to do this because it will not only deny the United States the right to play a role in solving this conflict, but will also destroy the two-state solution.”
Abbas warned that if the embassy is actually moved, “then we will discuss with the Arab countries what alternatives to take and retracting our recognition of Israel will be one of them.”
He added: “We hope we will not have to get to that and instead we will be able to work with the next American administration.”
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