President Abbas: If US Moves Embassy to Jerusalem, Peace Enters a Crisis

Palestinian President stresses key for peace lies in Israel ending occupation..

Bethlehem, 08 Rabil Akhir 1438/07 January 2017 (MINA) – President Mahmoud Abbas Friday expressed hope that statements relating to moving the US embassy to Jerusalem will not be correct nor will be carried out, warning however that if they are applied then the peace process in the Middle East and even peace in the world will enter a crisis no one will be able to overcome.

The president demanded during a meeting with various organizations in Beit Sahour on the occasion of the Greek Orthodox Christmas that the US administration implement UN Security Council resolution 2334 on Israeli settlements, which it abstained on.

“We heard a lot of statements relating to moving the US embassy, ??which we hope are not correct and will not be implemented, but if implemented then the peace process in the Middle East, and even peace in the world, will be in a crisis we will not be able to come out from.”

“We say to those who said it, and this is the US President-elect Donald Trump, we invite you to visit Palestine, especially Bethlehem, next year, and that this statement is not on your agenda because any statement or position that will disrupt or alter the status of Jerusalem is a red line that we will not accept it. We reject violence and reject terrorism from any source, and will not accept that we walk in that path. But we have many political and diplomatic ways that we will use if we have to. Therefore we request from the US administration not to go on this road,” WAFA quoted Abbas as saying.

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“Some people in the past talked about this subject and did not do anything,” he added. “So we hope the US administration does not move the embassy, ??and to implement UN resolution 2334, which it did not object to nor did use its veto against him, and thus it had approved the resolution, which had international consensus.”

“The decision 2334 was the first decision that was not vetoed by the Americans. Therefore, the US government has to implement it, which means rejecting settlements and considering them illegal. All US administrations said they reject the settlements,” said Abbas.

He added: “I call on the US administration to stop dealing in double standard with the political process. We consider talk about moving the US embassy to Jerusalem as aggression that eliminates the political work on the Palestinian situation, which considers East Jerusalem as the capital of their independent state, which we will never accept. East Jerusalem is the capital of our state. It is the open capital for all monotheistic religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It is the right of all religions to perform their religious rituals with total comfort in Jerusalem, our eternal capital.”

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The president went on to say: “On this day last year in Bethlehem, we called on the international community to act after the Israeli government refused to proceed with the peace process. It still insists on the continuation of the occupation. This will not be accepted by our people; so we called for an international conference and went to French President Hollande, who answered the call and called for the conference, which, God willing, will be held on the fifteenth of this month in Paris in the presence of at least 70 countries.”

“What is required from this conference is to form an international mechanism to oversee the peace process based on international legitimacy. We are not asking for more than implementing international resolutions, the latest of which Resolution No. 2334 adopted by the UN Security Council with international consensus. It was a victory for Palestinian legitimacy.”

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“If there is an international mechanism for follow-up and agreement on a specific timeline for negotiations and another for implementation, it will be another victory added to victories of Palestinian legitimacy, which started with joining the General Assembly and raising the flag of the state of Palestine at the United Nations and which culminates in 2017 as the year for ending the occupation. This is what we are demanding from the Paris conference.” (T/RS05/RS01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)