White House statement about Abbas ‘entirely wrong’

By Sibel Ugurlu and Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA

A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas slammed the White House Thursday for calling Abbas ‘an obstacle to peace’.

The statement was made because he criticized the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“These statements are entirely wrong, since President Abbas always reiterates that he is committed to a just peace on the basis of international legitimacy, Security Council resolutions and the world’s recognition of the State of Palestine as an observer at the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, based on the 1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital,” the Palestinian official news agency WAFA quoted Nabil Abu Rudeineh as saying.

In comments distributed to media outlets on Wednesday, an unnamed senior White House official said “[President Donald Trump] remains as committed to peace as ever. This [type of] rhetoric, which has prevented peace for years, is not surprising as we anticipated reactions like this”.

Stressing that Abbas has always supported peace, as well as rejected violence and terrorism, Rudeineh said “the [real] obstacle to the peace process is the continued Israeli occupation and settlement activity, which was criticized by all U.S. administrations, including the [Trump] administration.”

During a special meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul on Wednesday, Abbas said his country would not accept a future role for the U.S. in the Middle East peace process in response to Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last week.

“We will go to the UN’s Security Council with the aim to revoke Trump’s declaration,” Abbas said. “We will also go to the Security Council for full [UN] membership for the Palestinian state.”

Turkey hosted the 57-member OIC following the U.S. decision, which has been widely condemned by world leaders.