Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not meet United States Vice President Mike Pence when he visits Israel and Palestine later this month, said Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, according to Reuters. This is in response to the US’ decision to formally recognise Jerusalem as the Israel’s Capital.
Senior Palestinian leaders, who have been holding meetings ever since Donald Trump’s announcement, decided that Abbas will not meet Pence. The leaders may also reject an invitation to Abbas to meet Trump in Washington, The Guardian reported.
Trump’s announcement on Wednesday overturned decades of US policy towards the West Asian region and broke with years of precedent on the sensitive subject. It sparked violent protests in several regions of Palestine, leading to the deaths of four people. At least 25 people were injured when Israeli planes bombed militant targets in Gaza.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations, member countries condemned the United States’ move. The ambassadors of Sweden, Egypt, Britain, France and Bolivia, among others, said Trump’s announcement had subverted the two-state solution to the conflict in Palestine.
Late on Saturday, Arab foreign ministers also asked the US to abandon its decision. Trump’s announcement is a “dangerous violation of international law” that has no legal impact, the Arab League said in a statement issued after an emergency session in Cairo, according to Reuters.
Palestinian foreign minister al-Maliki said his nation would take the issue to the UN security council and the Arab League, The Guardian reported. He added that the Palestinians will look for a new country, instead of the United States,to broker peace talks.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and France President Emmanuel Macron announced they would work to convince the US to overturn its decision, Reuters quoted Turkish government sources as saying.
The Trump administration, however, maintains that it is still committed to Palestinian-Israeli talks. But it said Israel’s Capital would be Jerusalem if any serious peace plan were to be taken forward.
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