Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday rejected any attempt to impose a new U.S.-backed peace proposal, warning that efforts to forcibly remove Palestinians from their land were "delusional."
"Anyone who believes they can impose a new 'Deal of the Century,' displace our people and seize every inch of our land is delusional," Abbas said in a speech at the African Union Summit in Ethiopia.
His remarks were seen as a direct rebuke of U.S. President Donald Trump, who in his previous term attempted to advance a peace plan involving territorial swaps and Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.
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The comments also follow Trump’s recent statements about his intent to relocate Gaza’s population, a move Abbas claimed was designed to erase the Palestinian cause and divert global attention from what he described as "war crimes, genocide, settlement expansion, land theft and attacks on holy sites in the West Bank and Jerusalem."
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Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and US President Donald Trump in 2017
(Photo: AP)
Abbas accused Israel and settler groups of systematically undermining the two-state solution, saying, "These actions are carried out by the occupation forces and settler terrorist gangs, with the aim of dismantling the Palestinian Authority and burying the two-state solution."
Abbas’ remarks come just days after he issued a presidential decree repealing Palestinian laws that had authorized payments to families of prisoners held in Israeli jails and to relatives of terrorists killed in attacks. The move was viewed as a signal to Washington, but it quickly drew condemnation from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who accused the PA of capitulating to U.S. and Israeli pressure.