Abbas calls on US to pressure Israel to stop its 'unilateral' measures

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday called on the United States to pressure Israel to stop its “unilateral” measures against Palestinians and abide by bilateral agreements.

This came during Abbas’ meeting with CIA Director William Burns at the headquarters of the Palestinian presidency in Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

In his meeting with Burns, Abbas pointed to the latest “dangerous developments and the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians”, adding that “urgent intervention is important” in order to pressure Israel to stop its unilateral measures and abide by bilateral agreements, Wafa added.

The Palestinian president stressed “the necessity of restoring the political horizon on the basis of international legitimacy so as to achieve security and stability for all in the region.”

Abbas’s meeting with the CIA’s director came on the eve of the arrival of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Palestinian-Israeli negotiations stalled in 2014 due to Tel Aviv’s repudiation of the principle of the two-state solution, in addition to its refusal to stop settlement construction in the West Bank and to release a batch of former detainees as it had previously agreed to do.

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