Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas says there’s a narrowing window for the two-state solutions to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He met with US President Joe Biden in the occupied West Bank earlier this week. Biden met with Israeli authorities as part of his Middle East tour to promote regional security, deepen Israel’s integration in the region, and counter Iranian influence.
This is marked as an incredibly important day in the occupied West Bank, as US President Joe Biden is warmly received by his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas. Some Palestinian leaders had accused Biden’s administration of prioritising Israeli’s integration into a regional security arrangement with Arab countries above their concerns, including self-determination and continued Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
Biden says he won’t give up efforts to end the decade’s long Israeli Palestinian conflict though he offered no new proposals to restart the stalled political dialogue between the two sides.
Biden said, “Now as president of the United States, my commitment to that goal of a two-state solution has not changed in all these years. The 1967 lines were mutually agreed with swaps remains the best way to achieve equal measures of security, prosperity, freedom and democracy to the Palestinians as well as Israelis.”
However, Palestinian President Abbas says prospects for a two-state solution to the conflict, the model favoured by the US and world bodies like the United Nations are receding. He also requested the US to open a consulate in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future independent state, remove the Palestine Liberation Organisation from a list of terrorist groups and allow it to re-open an office in Washington.
Abbas further added that, “We are looking forward to steps from the US administration to strengthen bilateral relations by re-opening the US consulate in East Jerusalem. Removing the Palestinian Organisation from the U.S. terrorist list we are not terrorists and re-opening its office in Washington and we are ready to work within the framework of partnership.”
Commenting on the matter of the prominent journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s killers brought to the books, Bide said, “The United States will continue to insist on a full and transparent account of her Abu Akleh’s death and will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world.”
As Biden wrapped up the first leg of a Middle East trip before departing for Saudi Arabia, the U.S. President visited a hospital in East Jerusalem where he pledged a multi-year $100 million package of financial and technical help.
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