RAMALLAH, June 1, 2017 (WAFA) - Mahmoud al-Aloul, deputy head of Fatah movement and a member of its Central Committee, said Thursday that concern regarding a US decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is long gone.

Aloul told Voice of Palestine radio that the US embassy would not be moved to Jerusalem and that East Jerusalem will become the capital of the independent Palestinian state.

He said that this reflects the success of the Palestinian leadership in influencing the American administration and making it more understanding of the Palestinian position.

The Fatah official said that the world understands that the Israeli government is not a government of peace, but a government that seeks to perpetuate the occupation. He was responding to Netanyahu‘s recent remarks when he stressed continued Israeli military presence and control in the West Bank in the event of any peace agreement.

Aloul said that what Netanyahu had said was totally unacceptable and that independence meant the complete demise of the occupation from our land, which is what President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed when he repeatedly stated that he would not accept even one Israeli soldier on the Palestinian land, while stressing the readiness of the leadership to study the possibility of a third party’s presence.

M.K.