Ramallah: Condemning the shifting of United States embassy in Israel to Jerusalem on Monday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas termed it as a “settlement outpost.”
Reiterating that they no more consider US as the mediator Abbas vowed that the Palestinians will not engage in peace talks mediated by the US “in any way, shape or form.”
Following the opening of US embassy in Jerusalem Mahmoud Abbas convened an emergency meeting in Ramallah in which he said the move to shift US embassy was “a new settlement outpost, just like the Israeli settlements”. He blasted US saying that the move was an “assault on our sovereignty, an assault on our established rights”. According to sources he told “Palestine is for the Palestinians and is not, as the Jews claim, the land of their ancestors”
US opened it embassy in Jerusalem on Monday. The ceremony was attended by around 800 guests including US Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, the president’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump, and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt. US Ambassador David Friedman presided over the dedication ceremony. Besides Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin other senior Israeli officials were also present on the occasion.