Abbas says he’s pulling out of peace agreements
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared yesterday he was pulling out of long-standing peace agreements and security arrangements with Israel because of Israeli moves toward annexing Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, cited a provision of Israel’s new unity government, which was sworn in on Monday, allowing it to consider unilaterally annexing up to 30 per cent of the West Bank as early as July, a proposal that was endorsed by the Trump peace plan released earlier this year.
Abbas, speaking after an emergency meeting of his cabinet in Ramallah, said his government would no longer abide by the multiple accords between the Palestinians, Israel and the United States, including the landmark 1993 Oslo agreement.
The move toward annexation has roiled the region, with European and Arab diplomats largely condemning the possibility. Abbas noted the initiative was only the latest in what he characterised as a string of snubs from the Trump administration, including the 2018 move of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested city of Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority declined to participate in the administration’s preparation for its peace proposal, which also allows for a limited Palestinian state on the remainder of the territories.
‘‘We hold the American administration fully responsible for the oppression befalling the Palestinian people,’’ Abbas said in televised address, according to the official Palestinian News and
Information Agency. ‘‘We consider it a primary partner with the Israeli occupation government.’’
The ruling Palestine Liberation Organisation now considers itself absolved from all obligations because of the moves, Abbas said, leaving Israel alone responsible and bound by international law ‘‘as an occupying power over the territory.’’
Abbas has threatened before to abandon the complex web of agreements that has for decades divided control over the disputed territories between Israel and the elected Palestinian Authority, most recently after the debut of the Trump peace plan in January. It was unclear yesterday whether on-ground co-ordination between Israeli and Palestinian security units would be interrupted.
While his declaration yesterday was in unusually stark terms, Abbas also committed to participating in an internationally negotiated resolution to the conflict.
‘‘We reaffirm our commitment to a solution to the PalestinianIsraeli conflict based on the twostate solution,’’ he said in the address.