RAMALLAH, Wednesday, April 20, 2022 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday evening affirmed his absolute rejection to any change to the historical status quo at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

President Abbas made his remarks during a meeting with the UN Middle East peace envoy, Tor Wennesland, at the presidential headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

During the meeting, Abbas briefed Wennesland on the brutal Israeli assaults against worshippers at the mosque compound and across the occupied territories as well as on daily settler encroachments upon the religious landmark, while pointing that such assaults and encroachments violate the historical and legal status of the occupied city, which requires non-Muslim visits to the site to be coordinated through the Muslim Waqf Department.

He stressed the importance of the creation of a political horizon conducive to ending the Israeli occupation of the territories of the State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem as well as of cessation of Israeli unilateral measures and Israel’s respect for signed agreements, while cautioning that continued incursions into Palestinian villages, towns and camps and extra-judicial killings of Palestinians would lead to grave unbearable consequences that could not be tolerated.

He called on the United Nations to mobilize regional and international efforts to put an end to the historical injustice to which the Palestinian people has been subjected based on the international law and UN resolutions to enable the Palestinian people to live in freedom, peace and dignity in their homeland.

Wennesland affirmed that the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, would pursue his efforts and contacts to stop the escalation and the UN Secretary Council would hold an open-ended session on the situation in Palestine on Monday, April 25.

K.F.