ABBAS REITERATED COMMITMENT TO UN SPEECH

Ramallah, 19 Dzulhijjah 1436/3 October 2015 (MINA) – Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, (10/02) reiterated his commitment to promises made during his United Nations General Assembly speech earlier in the week.

At his presidential headquarters in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Abbas also celebrated the recent raising of the Palestinian flag at the UN headquarters in New York, Maan News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

He said, “The flag is not just a symbol. It’s an embodiment of dignity, history, present, and of future. When we raise our flag, we are raising our glory and dignity at the UN and in Palestine.”

Abbas said in his UNGA speech Wednesday that the PA’s continued complicity with past peace agreements are dependent on circumstances which have not yet been clarified by Palestinian leadership.

While many understood the president’s UN speech to be groundbreaking, no clear changes have been made in regards to security cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel in occupied Palestinian territory.

Adviser and supreme judge for religious courts Mahmoud al-Habbash told Ma’an Thursday that in his speech, Abbas began a new “stage in the relationship with Israel,” adding the exact parameters of such a move remain unclear.

Prior to the speech, rumors spread that Abbas would cancel the Oslo Accords.

The agreements began and 1993 and were intended to transfer power to the Palestinians by the end of 1999, but have left Israel in control of the majority of Palestinian territory and its resources.

Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad expressed disappointment with Abbas’ failure to seize the opportunity to make such a move and make good on his promise to drop a “bombshell” at the assembly. (T/Imt/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)