world against trump
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejects talks with United States
The vote represents the international community’s support to Palestine’s rights in terms of the international law. Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, Arab League Secretary-General
paris — Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that he would “no longer accept” any peace plan proposed by the United States, dealing a pre-emptive blow to a fresh initiative expected by Washington next year.
The comments in Paris came hours after 128 members of the United Nations voted to condemn US President Donald Trump’s decision on December 6 to unilaterally recognise occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
That move continues to reverberate in the Middle East and European diplomats are pessimistic about the Trump administration’s peace plan which is being prepared behind closed doors and will be presented to both sides in 2018.
US Vice-President Mike Pence postponed a trip he was due to make to the region this week, after Palestinian and Arab Christian leaders expressed reluctance to meet him.
“The United States has proven to be a dishonest mediator in the peace process and we will no longer accept any plan from it,” Abbas told a joint press conference
The US has proven to be a dishonest mediator in the peace process and we will no longer accept any plan from the US. Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President
with French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron repeated his earlier condemnations of the US decision on Jerusalem, but he also ruled out recognising Palestine as
The Americans have marginalised themselves and I am trying to not do the same thing. Emmanuel Macron, French President
a state unilaterally, which France has mooted previously. “The Americans have marginalised themselves and I am trying to not do the same thing,” Macron said,
We will continue to fight on this issue, using every available means…. until one day Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians. Najib Razak, Malaysian Prime Minister
conscious that any move to recognise Palestine would antagonise the Israelis. —
occupied jerusalem — Two Palestinians were killed in renewed clashes with Israeli forces, Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Friday, as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged France and Europe to play a stronger role in peace efforts amid continued fallout over US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The fresh violence came a day after the UN General Assembly resolution denouncing President Donald Trump’s decision.
Abbas on a visit to Paris urged France and Europe to play a stronger role in peace efforts, insisting he’ll no longer accept any US plans for Mideast peace because of the Trump’s position on Jerusalem, which Palestinians see as the administration siding with Israel on the most sensitive issue in the conflict.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Kidra said a 24-year-old and a 29-year-old were killed by live fire in clashes along the border with Israel. Another 45 Palestinians were wounded, he said.
The Israeli military said thousands of Palestinians participated in “violent riots” along the Gaza border and across the West Bank “hurling firebombs and rocks and rolling burning tyres” at Israeli forces. It said troops responded with tear gas and deployed live fire “selectively towards main instigators.”
Palestinians have been clashing with Israeli troops since Trump’s Jerusalem announcement on December 6. Ten Palestinians have been killed and dozens more wounded so far.
In Bethlehem on Friday, some Palestinian protesters held antiTrump banners reading “Mr Trump, it’s not your land to decide to whom it belongs, Jerusalem is ours and it belongs to us,” and “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.”
The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to denounce Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, largely ignoring Trump’s threats to cut off aid to any country that went against him.
The non-binding resolution declaring US action on Jerusalem “null and void” was approved 128-9 — a victory for the Palestinians, but not as big as they predicted. Amid Washington’s threats, 35 of the 193 UN member nations abstained and 21 were absent.
The Trump administration made it clear the vote would have no effect on its plan to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The United States and Israel had waged an intensive lobbying campaign against the UN measure, with US Ambassador Nikki Haley sending letters to over 180 countries warning that Washington would be taking names of those who voted against the US.
Trump went further, threatening a funding cutoff. “Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” he posted on Twitter.
Speaking in Paris, Abbas said the United States is “no longer an honest mediator in the peace process.”
Abbas also denounced the US threat to cut financial aid for countries who voted to back the UN resolution.
In a Christmas message, sent by
the uS chose to be biased. their future plan for Palestine will not be based on the two-state solution on the 1967 border, nor will it be based on International Law or uN resolutions
Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president
his office as he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, Abbas said Trump’s move disqualified the US from continuing in its traditional role as mediator in peace talks.
“The US chose to be biased. Their future plan for Palestine will not be based on the two-state solution on the 1967 border, nor will it be based on International Law or UN resolutions,” Abbas said in the written message. Trump’s announcement departed from decades of US policy that the fate of Jerusalem should be decided through negotiations. East Jerusalem is home to Jerusalem’s Old City with its key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, and its status is an emotionally charged issue. A sensitive hilltop compound there, sacred to both Jews and Muslims, is at the heart of the conflict.
Jews revere it as the Temple Mount, site of the two Jewish biblical temples. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the nearby Western Wall, a remnant of the temple complex, is the holiest place where Jews can pray. The walled compound is home to both the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third-holiest site after Makah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia.
Some 45,000 worshippers attended prayers at the Al Aqsa Mosque on Friday, said the Waqf, Jordan’s religious body that administers the site.
Hundreds of Palestinians marched after prayers there chanting “Jerusalem is Arab.”
The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war from Jordan, as the capital of their hoped-for state. Israel says the entire city, including east Jerusalem, is its eternal capital. Trump said his decision merely recognises the fact that Jerusalem already serves as Israel’s capital and is not meant to prejudge the final borders of the city. —