No positions on the world stage can be dictated by money, says Abbas

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and French President Emmanuel Macron (R) hold a press conference after an inter delegations meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France on December 22, 2017 [Thaer Ghanaim / Palestinian Presidency / Handout – Anadolu Agency]

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the UN General Assembly vote on Jerusalem proved that no positions can be dictated on the world stage by money. This was a reference to America’s threat that it will cut aid to countries which voted in favour of the resolution, Safa news agency reported on Friday.

“We will continue with our efforts,” Abbas told a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris after 128 countries supported the Jerusalem resolution.

This time, we are united for peace and I hope that the others will learn the lesson that no stances can be dictated to the world by money.

Abbas renewed previous remarks that the US is no longer an “objective” peace broker after Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his instruction to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. “We will never accept any US plan because of the American bias towards Israel and its violation of international law,” the Palestinian leader added.

Recognising the state of Palestine is an investment in peace, in the future of stability and security, and in distancing of violence, extremism, terror and war from our region.

For the sake of this, he said, and for the sake of maintaining the two-state solution, “we are calling for the states which have not yet recognised Palestine to do so.”

Read: Trump is a bully, the UN must stand up to him

The President condemned Israel’s Judaisation efforts to change Jerusalem’s identity and the displacement of its people, Muslims and Christians alike. Israeli aggression at the holy sites, he pointed out, is “very dangerous.”

Abbas stressed that he had discussed issues with Macron as “friends” and noted that there was a lot of credibility to the discussions. The PA President said that he is ready for negotiations with Israel on the basis of the two-state solution with the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital.

Free at last: A UN without US diplomatic blackmail

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.