At an anniversary party celebrating 52 years since the establishment of the Fatah party, President Mahmoud Abbas said: “We want to emphasize our willingness to work with the newly-elected American administration… to achieve peace… based on a two-state solution.”
Abbas expressed his hope that the international summit in Paris this month will create an “international mechanism” for accountability and a time table for the establishment of a Palestinian State. In this context Abbas again rejected the possibility of working in stages or creating the PA state with temporary boundaries.
In his words; “the settlement on occupied Palestinian land will be removed” and that 2017 will be ayear that the State of Palestine will be internationally recognized.
It should be noted that the two-state solution has been the basis for peace talks under the past several U.S administrations. However, Trump’s election platform didn’t mention a Palestinian state nor does the Republican platform say a word about a two state solution. Trump’s choice for ambassador to Israel has strong ties to the settler movement and Trump himself doesn’t like to reward terror and denounced Obama’s abstention of the UN resolution.
So perhaps Abbas’ words are, as usual, mere wishes that have nothing to do with reality.