Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said in a meeting of his Fatah Party’s Central committee that US President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace deal, also known as the deal of the century, “will not pass”. Abbas, who chaired the meeting on Sunday, held at his office in Ramallah, said “we won’t let the deal of the century pass”, Xinhua news agency reported.
He said “the Arab states also oppose the deal,” which aims at resolving decades long of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. “We informed the world that we are against the deal of the century, we won’t accept it and we won’t let it pass,” Abbas told the committee’s members, adding “we would like to reiterate that our Arab brothers asserted to us that they are against it.”
He added that “countries in the world, in Europe, Asia and Africa started to realise that the deal of the century will not pass,” in reference to the peace plan Trump administration is intending to declare soon. Ties between the US and the Palestinian Authority deteriorated when Trump declared that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Ties worsened after the US embassy to Israel was moved from Tel Aviv to the holy city.
Last direct US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians stopped in 2014 after nine months without any breakthrough due to deep difference on issues of settlement, security and borders. Meanwhile, Abbas reiterated the Palestinian rejection to the Israeli decision of cutting the PA fund, or allowances the PA pays to the families of the prisoners and those killed by Israel in the Palestinian territories.
“We are still waiting and we will take the proper measures that fit with our interests,” Abbas said. “Those are our prisoners and martyrs, and we have been paying them their allowances since 1965.” Talking about moving up the stalled file of reconciliation with rival Islamic Hamas movement, which has been controlling the Gaza Strip since 2007, Abbas said that there are talks that Egypt is holding with Hamas movement “in this respect”.
“We told Egypt that if Hamas really wants to make reconciliation, it should transfer all power in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian consensus government, and if not, they should bear the full responsibility of Gaza,” said Abbas.
