ABBAS: PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY WILL ‘RECONSIDER’ TIES WITH US
RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority will “reconsider” its relationship with the United States after Washington vetoed a Palestinian bid for full UN membership earlier this week, President Mahmud Abbas said on Saturday.
“The Palestinian leadership will reconsider bilateral relations with the United States to ensure the protection of our people’s interests, our cause, and our rights,” Abbas told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Wafa said his remarks came “on the heels of the United States’ use of veto power” at the UN
Security Council.
Thursday’s vote saw 12 countries on the Council back a resolution recommending full Palestinian membership and two — Britain and Switzerland — abstain.
Only the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, voted against, using its veto to block the resolution.
Abbas said the Palestinian leadership will “develop a new strategy to protect Palestinian national decisions independently and follow a Palestinian agenda rather than an American vision or regional agendas”.
He said Palestinians would “not remain hostage to policies that have proven their failure and have been exposed to the entire world”.
And he said the stance of the US government had “generated unprecedented anger among the Palestinian people and the region’s populations, potentially pushing the region towards further instability, chaos and terrorism”.
Meanwhile, Iran has dismissed as akin to child’s play Israel’s reported retaliation for an unprecedented Iranian strike, as both sides on Saturday appeared to step back from wider conflict stemming from the war in Gaza.
However, a deadly blast at an Iraqi military base emphasised the high tensions which persist in the region, as did more deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza and intensifying clashes in the West Bank.
Fears have soared this month that escalating tit-for-tat attacks between Israel and Iran could tip over into a broader war in the Middle East.
Israel had warned it would hit back after Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones a week ago in its first-ever direct attack on its arch enemy’s territory.