Palestinians need political path towards peace: Biden
Palestinians require a political path towards peace with Israel, even if a twostate solution to the conflict appears far off, US President Joe Biden said in the occupied West Bank on Friday.
“There must be a political horizon that the Palestinian people can actually see or at least feel.
“We cannot allow the hopelessness to steal away the future,” Biden said alongside Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem.
During the meeting Biden said the death of PalestinianAmerican journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was an “enormous loss to the essential work of sharing with the world the story of the Palestinian people”.
Biden said the US “will continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death and will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world”.
The US president, struggling to pronounce her name, said Abu Akleh “was performing very vital work” when she was killed in May.
The US state department concluded earlier this month that Abu Akleh was likely killed by Israeli fire as she reported on a military raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. The report said it found no reason to suggest her killing was intentional.
Palestinian leaders, including Abbas, as well as Abu Akleh’s family, have rejected the state department report and called for accountability for the Israeli military.
Meanwhile, Biden will discuss energy supply, human rights, and security cooperation in Saudi Arabia on Friday on a trip designed to reset the US relationship with a country he once pledged to make a “pariah” on the world stage.
Biden will hold meetings with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, along with other government officials, a senior Biden administration official told reporters.