AMMAN, February 21, 2016 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday called on the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, to promptly intervene to free hunger striking Palestinian detainee in Israeli jails, journalist Mohammad al-Qiq.

Abbas, who met with Kerry during an official visit to the Jordanian capital Amman, said efforts were underway to hold an international conference on peace and to create a new mechanism similar to the P5+1 – the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - and Germany – to help solve the Palestinian issue.

He stressed that ‘we’ were committed to head to the United Nations Security Council to seek an international condemnation of, and an end to, Israeli settlement construction.

Meanwhile, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said the Israeli Supreme Court rejected on Sunday an appeal submitted by the commission to allow al-Qiq’s family to visit him at Afula hospital, where he is being held.

Iyad Mesk, head of the legal unit at the commission, said Israeli authorities declined to grant al-Qiq’s family a permit to visit their son, who is still in danger of imminent death following at least 90 days of hunger strike.

M.N./T.R.