President Mahmoud Abbas meeting in Ramallah with Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. (WAFA Images / Thayer Ghanayem) 

RAMALLAH, July 2, 2018 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas discussed on Sunday with Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nation Secretary General’s Personal Representative and Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the situation in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip.

Abbas stressed in the meeting the important role the UN plays in providing protection for the Palestinian people and the necessity of continuing to provide services to the Palestinian refugees through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

He said that the Palestinian leadership is working to reinstate national unity and to end the division between the West Bank and Gaza by empowering the Conciliation Government in the Gaza Strip in a manner similar to the way it rules in the West Bank.

Mladenov said the meeting was part of ongoing meetings with the Palestinian leadership, Israel, Egypt and all relevant parties to make things clear to all that the UN fully supports an end to the separation between the West Bank and Gaza.

He said the UN supports efforts by the Palestinian leadership and government to assume full rule in Gaza.

The UN official described the meeting as constructive, adding that he discussed with President Abbas what should be done on the ground to help the people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as finding a political solution for Gaza that would take into consideration the difficult humanitarian situation there.

He said he will continue to coordinate efforts in the future to make sure that the Palestinian government assumes full authority in Gaza in order to provide services to the people there and alleviate their hardships, as well as to avoid an escalation on the ground.

Mladenov was in Gaza where he discussed ideas to alleviate its difficult humanitarian situation before meeting Abbas. The UN official has proposed providing Gaza with fuel to run its power plant to bring back badly needed electric power currently ed to four hours a day as well as permanent opening of its crossings with Egypt and Israel to allow free entry of goods and supplies to Gaza.

Other ideas include creating a sea route between Gaza and Cyprus supervised by Israel, which has been enforcing a strict blockade on Gaza since 2006, after Hamas’ victory in the Palestinian legislative elections.

The Palestinian leadership, meanwhile, accuses the American administration and Israel of looking at Gaza as a humanitarian rather than a political issue and therefore they have been pushing for an economic solution that it fears is intended to create a permanent separation between the West Bank and Gaza Strip and an end to the Palestinian struggle for an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and with East Jerusalem as its capital based on the 1967 borders.

M.K.