Palestinians’ Abbas warns Trump not to move U.S. embassy to Jerusalem

by WorldTribune Staff, January 18, 2017

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas warned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump not to follow through on his pledge to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

To do so, he said, would be regarded as a “provocation that would harm the peace process.”

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas said moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be crossing a ‘red line.’ /Reuters

“We hope he will not move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, because Jerusalem from the perspective of Israel is a united city, and this is not true and is not valid, and therefore moving the embassy would thwart any future progress and will harm the peace process,” Abbas said at a meeting of the PA parliament in Ramallah.

“Therefore,” he continued, “we hope that he will stop the embassy move and will start negotiations on the basis of the decisions of international institutions and Resolution 2334 of the UN Security Council and the Paris conference, and after that each side will know its boundaries.

“We recognize our borders based on the 1967 lines, including east Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine… Moving the [American] embassy is not only a provocation, but in fact is more than a provocation and will harm the entire peace process,” warned Abbas.

The PA leader on Jan. 13 asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene and stop Trump from moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

In a letter to Trump two weeks ago, Abbas warned the president-elect against moving the American embassy, saying that such a move would be crossing a “red line.”

Last week the PA chairman warned of “serious implications” if the embassy is moved, saying, “moving the embassy will have serious consequences not only for the Palestinian people, but also for the legitimacy of the entire international struggle against the occupation.”

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