Faced with Joe Biden, Mahmoud Abbas refuses any connection between Israel and Saudi Arabia

The president of the Palestinian Authority, who received the American president, Friday in Bethlehem, seemed to deny the dynamics of normalization between the Hebrew State and a part of the Arab world.

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History course, refusal of reality, attempt to consolidate dikes that take water from all sides … There was all this in the speech of the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to his host to Bethlehem, Joe Biden, Friday July 15. Faced with the American president, who flew to Saudi Arabia after two days in Israel and a morning in the occupied Palestinian territories, Mr. Abbas once again rejected the normalization of relations between the Hebrew State and part of the world Arabic – that Mr. Biden is strong to promote.

On several occasions, the “Raïs” recalled the existence of “the Arab peace initiative”: the plan designed in 2002 by the Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah and adopted this same year by the Arab League, which subordinate the Normalization with Israel for the creation of a viable Palestinian State. This initiative was buried by diplomatic standardization agreements, signed in 2020, under the sponsorship of Donald Trump, between Israel on the one hand and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco on the other. But the 2002 plan officially remains the standard in Riyadh, authorizing Mr. Abbas to urge Salman, the current Saudi sovereign, not to forget it.

There was something terribly anachronistic in the meeting of Abu Mazen, the nickname of Mr. Abbas, 87, with Joe Biden, 79 years old. It was an opportunity for the American president to recall, more clearly than ever during his mandate, his attachment to a solution to two states on the borders of 1967. The mode of settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict initiated by the Oslo agreements (1993), who, for lack of having been sufficiently defended by the big Western capitals, starting with Washington, seems to be dead today, although never buried.

No track to relaunch negotiations

m. Biden did not mention any track to relaunch peace negotiations. He did not mention East Jerusalem as “capital” of a future Palestinian State, a key demand for Ramallah leaders. The tenant of the White House ratified the recognition of the holy city as the capital of Israel by his predecessor, Donald Trump. Earlier in the morning, Mr. Biden went to the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, where he offered $ 100 million in aid to the Palestinian Holy City Hospital Network – a sum that Congress will have to Validate.

He also promised 201 million dollars to UNRWA, the United Nations agency who attended the Palestinian refugees – honored in his time by Donald Trump. He finally announced a project to deploy 4G in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, where 3G and 2G respectively reign – a promise of progress already made by Israel and Washington in the past and remained dead letter.

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/Media reports.