RAMALLAH, Thursday, September 19, 2019 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today called on the international community to seize upon the peace opportunity Foreign Minister Riyad Malki declared yesterday in Norway on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas expressing readiness to negotiate with the next prime minister of Israel.

“Another very valuable opportunity presented by President Mahmoud Abbas to achieve peace not only for our resilient Palestinian people, but also for the Israelis, the region and the world,” said the ministry in a statement. “This golden opportunity was expressed by Foreign Minister Riyad Malki yesterday in Norway on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas in which he said, ‘We are ready to negotiate with any prime minister of the new government in Israel’, and, ‘We respect the democratic outcome of the elections in Israel. Whoever will be able to form a government, we are ready to sit down with him in order to resume negotiations’."

The Ministry said “this wise political position is a strong and clear message to the Israeli society and the international community that the Palestinian leadership is ready to negotiate with the other side, in a reaffirmation that it did not reject the negotiations at all, but participated in all forms of negotiation and through all available channels, and provided all that was necessary and carried out all its responsibilities and obligations for the success of all forms of negotiations.”

It said that “the opportunity for peace and negotiations initiated by President Abbas from Norway, which he will re-emphasize in his important address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, puts once again the international community and all countries, especially the members of the Security Council, before their political and legal responsibilities in the need to seize this opportunity, which might be the last, and to start serious international action on it to launch serious and meaningful negotiations under multilateral international supervision between the Palestinian and Israeli sides in accordance with the agreed international terms of reference. Failure of the international community and the United Nations in doing that would have negative impact on the chances of achieving peace on the basis of the two-state solution."

M.K.