Abbas: International conference needed to end war, US is complicit with Israel

(Patria) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that an international peace conference is necessary to end the war in Gaza and to develop a lasting political solution that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

In an interview with Reuters at his Ramallah office, Abbas (87) said the conflict between Israel and Palestinians in general had reached an alarming phase that required an international conference and guarantees from world powers. In addition to Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza, he said Israeli forces had intensified their attacks across the occupied West Bank over the past year, while settlers had escalated violence against Palestinian towns.

He reiterated his long-standing position in favor of negotiations rather than armed resistance to end the long-standing occupation. "With peaceful resistance. I am for negotiations based on an international peace conference and under international auspices that would lead to a solution protected by world powers for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem," he said.

Abbas said that based on a binding international agreement, the weakened Palestinian Authority (PA) would be revived, long-awaited reforms would be implemented, and presidential and parliamentary elections would be held, which were suspended after Hamas won in 2006 and ousted the PA from Gaza.

He said the PA had adhered to all peace agreements signed with Israel since the Oslo Accords of 1993 and subsequent agreements over the years, but that Israel had reneged on its promises to end the occupation.

Asked if he would risk holding elections given the possibility of Hamas winning as it did in 2006, he said: "Whoever wins, it will be a democratic choice".

Abbas said he had planned to hold elections in April 2021, but an envoy from the European Union told him in advance that Israel opposed voting in East Jerusalem, so he was forced to cancel them. He insisted that there would be no elections without East Jerusalem, saying that the PA had held three rounds of elections in the past that included East Jerusalem before Israel imposed a ban.

Israel occupied Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. It later annexed it, declaring the entire city its capital, which is not internationally recognized. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

"The United States tells us that it supports a two-state solution, that Israel is not allowed to occupy Gaza, to maintain security control of Gaza, or to expropriate land from Gaza," he said, referring to a plan outlined by Israel to establish a security zone in Gaza after the war. "America does not force Israel to implement what it says."

He said the PA was still present in Gaza as an institution and was still paying monthly salaries and expenses estimated at $140 million for employees, pensioners, and families in need. The PA still has three ministers present in Gaza, he added.

"Gaza today is not the Gaza you know. Gaza is destroyed, its hospitals, its schools, its infrastructure, its buildings, its roads, and its mosques are destroyed. Nothing is left. When we return, we need resources, Gaza needs reconstruction."

"The United States, which fully supports Israel, bears responsibility for what is happening in the enclave," Abbas said. "It is the only power capable of ordering Israel to stop the war and fulfill its obligations, but unfortunately it has not. America is complicit with Israel," Abbas concluded.