RAMALLAH, July 2, 2018 (WAFA) – The speech delivered by Foreign and Expatriates Minister Riyad al-Malki on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas during the African Union’s 31st summit in Mauritania’s capital, Nouakchott, dominated the front page headlines in the dailies on Monday.
Al-Quds reported that Abbas called on the African Union (AU) to reconsider relations with Israel, while al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Abbas called on AU member states to reconsider their relations with racist political regimes, including Israel as a striking example.
Abbas was also reported in al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida stating that the US administration is not morally or politically qualified to impose a solution or demand to pass any deal.
He was also reported in al-Hayat al-Jadida saying that the Palestinian Authority has made peace that secured the minimum usurped rights of the Palestinian people, which Israel has undermined.
Furthermore, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida spotlighted Abbas’ meeting with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov in Ramallah.
Abbas was reported stating that the Palestinian leadership continued to work towards achieving reconciliation and ending the division on the basis of enabling the national consensus government to function in Gaza.
On the other hand, al-Quds opted to highlight the situation in the occupied Golan Heights and the southwestern Syrian region of Daraa in its main front page item.
It reported that Israel has beefed up its military and artillery deployment in the occupied Golan Heights.
It added that the Syrian and Russian forces have reached a reconciliation agreement with militants who laid down arms in Daraa, granting them amnesty.
Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee Saeb Erekat reportedly said that a recently-formed committee, chaired by PLO Executive Committee member Azzam al-Ahmad, would soon make recommendations on resolving all Gaza issues.
He was also reported in al-Ayyam stating that the intra-Palestinian division has become the gap through which Israel and the US have been attempting to pass the so-called “Deal of the Century”.
Additionally, Qatari ambassador Mohammad al-Emadi was reported in al-Quds announcing that Hamas and Israel held indirect talks to reach a deal to resolve the humanitarian issues gripping the besieged Gaza Strip and that the US was aware of the talks.
Moreover, al-Quds reported that a group of Palestinians from Gaza set fire to Israeli military equipment along Gaza’s eastern border, while al-Ayyam noted that they set fire to military tents.
Al-Quds added that flammable kites flown by Gaza protestors caused 25 fires to break out in settlements in Gaza periphery, while al-Ayyam added that an Israeli drone targeted a group of Palestinians flying kites, east of Gaza.
Moreover, al-Quds and al-Ayyam said that a group of pro-Palestinian activists have renewed their efforts to oust Israel from the European Union’s research program, called Innovation Europe.
According to al-Ayyam, Israeli forces are preparing to demolish and forcefully displace the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, east of Jerusalem.
Besides, al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Israeli police re-detained a Palestinian prisoner from East Jerusalem shortly after they released him from the Naqab prison in southern Israel.
It added that the Palestinian cabinet decried an Israeli plan to organize the so-called Jerusalem Light Festival, which attempts to portray Jerusalem as a Jewish city.
K.F./M.K.
