Ramallah, May 31, 2022 WAFA - President Mahmoud Abbas received Tuesday night a phone call from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
During the call, they discussed the latest developments and the grave situation on the Palestinian arena in addition to the ongoing Israeli escalation against the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and its holy sites.
President Abbas indicated that the current situation cannot be tolerated given the absence of a political horizon, the lack of international protection for the Palestinian people, and the Israeli occupation authorities’ evasion of their obligations under signed agreements and resolutions of international legitimacy, along with their ongoing unilateral actions and settler intrusions into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the recent “March of the Flags”, organized by Israeli Jewish supremacists to celebrate Israel’s occupation and colonization of East Jerusalem.
They also touched upon the fact that Palestinian are denied access to Jerusalem’s holy sites to perform their religious rites and prayers freely in flagrant violation of the historical status quo in addition to ongoing forced expulsions of Palestinian families from Jerusalem neighborhoods, home demolitions, extrajudicial killings, unabated colonial settlement construction and settler terrorism.
President Abbas affirmed that the Palestinian leadership is in the process of taking measures to confront this Israeli escalation, in light of the international community’s inability to compel Israel to comply with the resolutions of international legitimacy and halt its criminal and occupying practices and measures of ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination and in light of the US administration’s silence on these Israeli provocations and practices, which flagrantly violate international law.
He stressed the need to remove the Palestine Liberation Organization from US “terror” list, reopen the US consulate in East Jerusalem and the PLO office in Washington as a full and committed partner in the peace process.
He indicated that the Palestinian leadership will continue to make contacts in order to mobilize international support to confront these serious challenges and to put an end to the crimes of the occupation, which have reached an unacceptable level.
He stressed the need for the US administration to turn its words into actions, and not be satisfied with the policy of condemnation, denunciation and silence on these unilateral Israeli measures, because the situation on the ground is no longer acceptable at all.
Secretary Blinken affirmed the Biden administration's commitment to the two-state solution, preserving the status quo and halting colonial settlement expansion, forced expulsions and unilateral actions on both sides, while stressing the administration's commitment to reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem.
He confirmed that the US administration will dispatch a high-level delegation to prepare for President Biden’s upcoming visit, discuss all the issues raised by President Abbas in this call, and create the atmosphere conducive to the success of President Biden's visit to Palestine and the region.
He expressed the US administration's keenness to conduct an investigation into the killing of journalist Shereen Abu Aqleh with the aim of prosecuting and holding murderers accountable.
Secretary Blinken added the Biden administration's determination to improve conditions for Palestinians and pave the way for action during the coming period to de-escalate the situation and create the appropriate environment with the aim of giving hope to the Palestinians and all peoples of the region.
K.F.
