Palestinian Authority President Abbas to meet Turkiye’s Erdogan

Palestinian Authority President Abbas to meet Turkiye’s Erdogan
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Fatah Palestinian movement, a rival to Hamas, had already visited Turkiye at Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s invitation in early March. (Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Updated 14 August 2024
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Palestinian Authority President Abbas to meet Turkiye’s Erdogan

Palestinian Authority President Abbas to meet Turkiye’s Erdogan
  • The visit comes at a tense time during the 10-month Israel-Hamas war
  • Erdogan has been a fierce critic of Israel’s conduct in the war

ANKARA: Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas is set to meet with Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday in Ankara, a day after a visit to Moscow.
The visit comes at a tense time during the 10-month Israel-Hamas war, with faltering efforts for a ceasefire and Israel braced for threatened attacks from Iran and its proxies following killings of senior Hamas officials in Iran and Lebanon.
Abbas is due to meet with Erdogan at 1530 GMT at the presidential palace, according to the Turkish leader’s itinerary.
Erdogan has been a fierce critic of Israel’s conduct in the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks, dubbing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “the butcher of Gaza.”
He also criticized the Western world for failure to pressure Israel to stop the war.
While Hamas is viewed by the United States, the European Union and Israel as a terrorist organization, Erdogan has described it as “a liberation movement.”
In July, Erdogan chastised Abbas for not responding to his invitation to visit Turkiye.
Abbas added a trip to Ankara after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.
He will address the Turkish parliament in a special session dedicated to the Palestinian issue on Thursday.
Abbas, who heads the Fatah Palestinian movement, a rival to Hamas, had already visited Turkiye at Erdogan’s invitation in early March.

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UN Security Council must reform to ‘reflect realities of modern world’: Kuwait crown prince

UN Security Council must reform to ‘reflect realities of modern world’: Kuwait crown prince
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UN Security Council must reform to ‘reflect realities of modern world’: Kuwait crown prince

UN Security Council must reform to ‘reflect realities of modern world’: Kuwait crown prince
  • Sheikh Sabah reiterates support for Palestinian people, sovereignty of Lebanon and Sudan
  • Praises Saudi Arabia for helping to alleviate humanitarian crises in Syria, Libya, Yemen

NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council must reform to “reflect the realities of the modern world” and so it is equipped to deal with current and future challenges, Kuwait’s crown prince told the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah also said it is vital that the international community maintain the UN’s effectiveness, especially amid current escalating global crises.

He stressed that global challenges such as conflicts, inequality and financial instability require “innovative and collective” solutions from key international institutions, including the UN.

Kuwait, he added, believes strongly in the importance of making the UNSC more representative and democratic.

Sheikh Sabah also reiterated Kuwait’s “unwavering” support for the Palestinian people and their struggle to establish an independent state based on the 1967 borders, and for Lebanon’s sovereignty.

“We condemn the illegal and inhumane actions of the Israeli occupation forces, including the destruction of homes and infrastructure, and the forcible displacement of Palestinian citizens, particularly in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” he said.

“We call on the international community to assume its responsibilities and put an end to the violations and injustices suffered by the Palestinian people under the ongoing Israeli occupation.

“We also condemn Israel’s continued violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, including its repeated military incursions and violations of Lebanese airspace, which destabilize the region and disregard international law.”

Sheikh Sabah praised Saudi Arabia for its role in alleviating the humanitarian crises in regional countries such as Syria and Libya, and its support for the UN-recognized government in Yemen.

“We commend Saudi Arabia’s efforts in the political process in Yemen, and their leadership in supporting the legitimate government and promoting peace,” he said.

“We believe that the Saudi-led coalition’s efforts will pave the way for a political solution that ensures Yemen’s security and stability.”

The crown prince said Kuwait remains committed to providing humanitarian aid to the Sudanese people, and it is working closely with international organizations to ensure the delivery of necessary assistance.

He called for urgent international action to address the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, and urged all parties to respect the country’s “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”

He urged Iran to respect international law and the sovereignty of its regional neighbors, adding that peaceful relations between countries in the Middle East are critical for stability.

“Kuwait fully supports the international community’s efforts to address concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program,” he said.

“We urge Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and abide by international agreements to ensure the security and stability of the Gulf region.”

Sheikh Sabah congratulated Saudi Arabia on its successful bids to host the World Expo 2030 and the 2034 FIFA World Cup as a victory for the Kingdom and the region as a whole, which would highlight its “significant progress and its role on the international stage.”


All eyes on Iran’s balancing walk as IRGC’s Middle East proxies face Israel’s onslaught

All eyes on Iran’s balancing walk as IRGC’s Middle East proxies face Israel’s onslaught
Updated 49 sec ago
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All eyes on Iran’s balancing walk as IRGC’s Middle East proxies face Israel’s onslaught

All eyes on Iran’s balancing walk as IRGC’s Middle East proxies face Israel’s onslaught
  • Tehran’s strategic restraint amid repeated blows signals a shift in its regional approach, some analysts suggest
  • Debate grows over President Pezeshkian’s conciliatory tone at the UNGA as Israel-Hezbollah tensions escalate

LONDON: On July 31, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ decision-making Political Bureau, was killed in the heart of Tehran.

As a prominent negotiator of an eagerly awaited ceasefire deal with Israel, Haniyeh would have made an unlikely target for an Israeli government looking to bring an end to the months of indiscriminate death and destruction being suffered in Gaza.

However, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom critics accuse of maintaining the impetus of perpetual war as a guarantee of clinging on to power, the audacious killing appeared to be a calculated provocation of Tehran, designed to escalate the war in Gaza into a regional conflict.

According to this line of thinking, other than vowing to avenge Haniyeh for the “cowardly action,” Tehran refused to play ball.

In much the same way, Iran’s reaction to the Israeli missile attack on an Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus in April, in which senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed, was unexpectedly muted. Iran’s response — a wave of missiles and drones that constituted its first direct attack on Israeli soil — was largely gestural, planned, telegraphed and executed deliberately to cause minimum damage and casualties.

This week, following the deadly pager-bomb attacks — widely believed to be carried out by Israel’s spy agency Mossad targeting Hezbollah operatives — and airstrikes, as Israeli troops massed on the border with Lebanon, critics said Netanyahu was poised once again to try to provoke Iran into a regional escalation.

And, once again, Tehran is exercising restraint.

Haniyeh could have been killed anywhere, at any time, but the timing and location of his death was chosen carefully. The former Palestinian prime minister was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian — a moderate whose election and approval by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen by some commentators as a sign that Iran might be entering a new, conciliatory era, anathema to an Israeli leader dependent on perpetual conflict for his political survival.

The day before the killing of Haniyeh, Pezeshkian spoke in his inauguration speech of his determination to normalize his country’s relations with the rest of the world — an ambition underlined by the presence of Enrique Mora, the European Union’s chief nuclear negotiator.

This week, even as Israel is bombarding Lebanon and hitting Hezbollah hard, Iran has kept its finger off the trigger.

Not only that, but in an unprecedented and lengthy press conference with Western media at the UN in New York earlier this week, Pezeshkian spelled it out for anyone who had not already noticed the extent to which Iran has exercised restraint in the face of repeated provocation.

“What Israel has done in the region and what Israel tried with the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran was to drag us into a regional war,” he said. “We have exercised restraint so far, but we reserve the right to defend ourselves at a specific time and place with specific methods.”

But, he added: “We do not wish to be the cause of instability in the region.”

According to a report last month by the media outlet Iran International, citing sources “familiar with the subject,” in the wake of Haniyeh’s killing, Pezeshkian made the case for restraint directly to Ayatollah Khamenei, clashing with senior leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who wanted to launch attacks against Israel.

But the most remarkable evidence that Pezeshkian may be seeking a new path for Iran came on Tuesday, when he addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.

Predictably enough, he condemned the “atrocities” carried out in Gaza by Israel, which “in 11 months has murdered in cold blood over 41,000 innocent people, mostly women and children.”

Israel’s “desperate barbarism” in Lebanon, he added, must be halted “before it engulfs the region and the world.”

And then came the real message he had flown to New York to deliver: “I aim to lay a strong foundation for my country’s entry into a new era, positioning it to play an effective and constructive role in the evolving global order,” he said.

“My objective is to address existing obstacles and challenges while structuring my country’s foreign relations in cognizance of the necessities and realities of the contemporary world.”

Echoing the words of Iran’s equally new foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, Pezeshkian indicated that Tehran was keen to reopen the nuclear negotiations from which former US president Donald Trump unexpectedly walked away in 2017.

He also made the case for ending sanctions, “destructive and inhumane weapons … endangering the lives of thousands of innocent people (and) a blatant violation of human rights.”

Iran, he added, “stands prepared to foster meaningful economic, social, political and security partnerships with global powers and its neighbors based on equal footing.”

Faced with Iran’s seemingly conciliatory new president, offering an olive branch at a time when Iran might normally be expected to be reaching for weaponry, experts are divided over whether or not Tehran is truly on a new course and set to defy expectations of its response to events in Lebanon.

“Pezeshkian and Araghchi receive their orders from Ayatollah Khamenei and from the National Security Council in Tehran and they thus don't have a mandate for some sort of a grand change in Iranian policies that would help end its pariah status,” said Arash Azizi, visiting fellow at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and author of the 2021 book “The Shadow Commander — Soleimani, the US, and Iran's Global Ambitions.”

“But they do have a mandate for lessening tensions, negotiating with the West, including the US, over Iran’s role in Ukraine and its nuclear program, and trying to get to some sort of a rapprochement that could help alleviate pressure on Iran and fix its economy.”

He added: “Any success Iran has in this path will strengthen the pro-reform factions in Iran and affect the trajectory of the country's future, especially a future after Khamenei dies.”

Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and author of the book “Political Succession in The Islamic Republic of Iran,” believes Pezeshkian is uniquely positioned to effect change.

“Iranian President Pezeshkian presides over a cabinet composed of capable technocrats, who also happen to represent different factions among the ruling elites of the Islamic Republic,” he said.

“This rare combination of skills and representation not only provides Pezeshkian with the opportunity to engage in effective diplomacy, but also lessens the risk of domestic factional sabotage of his diplomatic efforts.”

Certainly, when it comes to events in Lebanon, Ali Vaez, Iran Project director with the International Crisis Group, said: “Iran is going to stand behind, not with, Hezbollah. Tehran’s forward defense strategy has always been based on projecting power beyond its borders and deterring, not inviting, strikes against its own territory.”

He added: “Iran seems convinced that expansion of the conflict now will benefit Israel, and it’s following a basic rule that what’s good for Israel can’t be good for Iran.”

Iran, said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East North Africa Program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, was trying to keep two doors open at once.

“It needs to open negotiations with the West to manage its domestic economic crisis, but on regional issues it also needs to keep the Axis of Resistance alive. It’s a hard balance to strike, which is leading to challenges and changes in perception,” he said.

But the reasons behind Iran’s current diplomatic offensive remain “intriguing,” said Ahron Bregman, former Israeli soldier, author and senior teaching fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, specializing in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Middle East peace process.

“Iranian diplomats excel at tightrope walking,” he said.

“Are they trying to end their pariah-state status, or is there a hidden agenda behind their somehow soft diplomatic approach? Does Iran genuinely want to reach an agreement with the West regarding its nuclear ambitions, or is it just trying to kill time?”

Either way, he added: “I believe that Iran doesn’t want to become directly involved in Lebanon, not least because they can see how destructive Israel’s air power is. I’m pretty sure that Iran was taken aback by the ferocity of the Israeli campaign in Lebanon, from the ‘James Bond’ pagers operation to the precise air attacks on Hezbollah’s weapons arsenal.

“But Iran reckons that Israel will struggle if the current campaign in the north turns into a war of attrition with Hezbollah, particularly if Israel invades Lebanon, where it will lose its advantages — the terrain in south Lebanon makes it difficult to use tanks and airpower.”

Urban Coningham, a RUSI research fellow specializing in the security and geopolitics of the Middle East, particularly in the Levant, is skeptical that President Pezeshkian is the face of genuine change.

“I don’t think that we can take this as evidence that Iran is willing to become a reliable security partner and actor in the region,” he said.

“Iran and its Axis of Resistance are in a uniquely weak position as one of their key members, Hezbollah, is under intense attack. Iran’s statement of willingness to come to the negotiation table is really its last tool of applying pressure upon Israel.

“This diplomatic pressure will be applied to Israel’s key allies, principally the US, to persuade Western policymakers that Iran and its network do not pose a threat and to dissuade Israel from continuing to escalate the conflict and isolate Netanyahu.”

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies at SOAS University of London and author of the book “What is Iran?,” takes a more generous view of Tehran’s current stance.

“By virtue of its historical weight, strategic position and national resources, Iran will always be a central nodal point for the politics of the region and beyond,” he said.

“The reformist administration of President Pezeshkian follows a realistic and largely prudent assessment of this geopolitical centrality, which attempts to harness all the dividends that the power of Persia could bring about.”

In concrete terms, he added, “this approach has seriously restrained Iran’s responses to the onslaught spearheaded by the Netanyahu administration.

“As opposed to the rationale of maximum escalation that Netanyahu pursues with so much brutal desperation, Iran has been recurrently and consistently restrained in its responses, certainly relative to the offensive capabilities that the country possesses.

“Of course, Iran has its right-wing extremists, too. But in contrast to the situation in Israel, they are currently marginalized and the Iranian government around President Pezeshkian is composed of pragmatists and diplomats.”

It was, he added, to be regretted that, as yet, “the world has not taken advantage of this chance for peace, exactly because the Netanyahu administration has plunged the region, and indeed Israelis themselves, into the abyss of a horrendous inferno.”

For now, though, cynicism about Iran’s motives persists among seasoned Western diplomats.

“Iran is playing its usual mind games,” said Sir John Jenkins, a former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria, and consul-general in Jerusalem.

Talk of returning to the nuclear deal, he said, “in the eyes of some makes Iran look reasonable when it’s anything but, so it’s a niche bit of trolling.”

There are, he added, “no signs Tehran will abandon the militias, the Houthis, Hamas, let alone Hezbollah. Iran doesn’t want a hot war with Israel because it believes it can win a war of attrition, so persuading everyone that de-escalation is the answer is a victory in itself.

“If Israel degrades Hezbollah’s capabilities to the extent that it poses no credible threat to Israel, or if it looks as if that is achievable, then Iran may think again. But it wants to avoid the choice. Hence this blackly comic diplomatic farce.”


Norway issues wanted notice for man connected to exploding pagers in Lebanon

Norway issues wanted notice for man connected to exploding pagers in Lebanon
Updated 46 min 58 sec ago
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Norway issues wanted notice for man connected to exploding pagers in Lebanon

Norway issues wanted notice for man connected to exploding pagers in Lebanon
  • The notice is part of a multi-country investigation trying to piece together how thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies were rigged to explode and their trail to Lebanon
  • Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have blamed Israel for the coordinated two-day attacks

COPENHAGEN: Norway issued an international wanted notice on Thursday for a man linked to a Bulgaria-based company that may have been involved in the dissemination of exploding electronic devices to the militant Hezbollah group that killed dozens and wounded thousands in Lebanon last week.
The notice is part of a multi-country investigation trying to piece together how thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies were rigged to explode and their trail to Lebanon.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese government have blamed Israel for the coordinated two-day attacks, which killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 3,000, including civilians. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.
“We have on behalf of the Oslo police sent out an international wanted notice today,” Åste Dahle Sundet, a spokeswoman for Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service told The Associated Press.
The agency declined to name the man or provide his nationality. All that is known is that he was listed as working for a Norwegian company.
Norwegian news agency NTB wrote on Thursday that the 39-year-old man had traveled to the United States last week but vanished after arriving there. The man was subsequently reported missing on Wednesday, one of Norway’s major tabloids VG wrote, citing police.
The CEO of the man’s employer, Norway-based DN Group, told the AP in an email that the company had “tried to contact our employee without success since we first heard the serious allegations about his alleged private activity, which we did not know about and has nothing to do with us as a company.”
“We haven’t heard from him since (last) Wednesday, and we don’t know where he is. This worries us,” DN Group CEO Amund Djuve said.
Djuve also did not give the man’s name.
The man holds a Norwegian passport and has lived in Norway for 12 years but was born in another country, NTB reported. The news agency described him as one of the founders of the Bulgarian company that was allegedly connected to supplying the pagers to Hezbollah.
The Bulgarian company is not the only firm implicated in the pagers’ journey to Lebanon.
Last week, Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo, whose name appeared on the pagers, said it had authorized Budapest, Hungary-based BAC Consulting to use its brand for the devices that exploded, but insisted the Hungarian company was responsible for their manufacturing and design.
Hungary’s Special Service for National Security told the AP last week that the CEO of BAC Consulting had been interviewed “several times” as part of an investigation, but that they believed the company had not taken part in rigging the devices to explode.
“The results of the investigation so far have made it clear that the so-called pagers have never been on Hungarian territory, and that no Hungarian company or Hungarian expert was involved in their manufacture or modification!” the agency said in an email.
Norway’s domestic security agency, known by its acronym PST, earlier told the AP that it was checking whether a Norwegian national had any connection with the company that sold the pagers that exploded in Lebanon.
PST stressed that it was not a formal investigation and that there was currently no concrete suspicion against the man.


Yemen’s president vows to defeat ‘new imamates’ as country commemorates 1962 revolution

Yemen’s president vows to defeat ‘new imamates’ as country commemorates 1962 revolution
Updated 51 min 47 sec ago
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Yemen’s president vows to defeat ‘new imamates’ as country commemorates 1962 revolution

Yemen’s president vows to defeat ‘new imamates’ as country commemorates 1962 revolution
  • Rashad Al-Alimi calls for global designation of Houthis as terrorist organization to deter militia’s attacks on international shipping lanes
  • ‘Outcome of this decisive battle … will determine our freedom and dignity, as well as the future of all Yemeni men and women,’ he adds

AL-MUKALLA: The chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, pledged to defeat the Houthi militia and end their rule, as the country marked the 62nd anniversary of its Sept. 26 Revolution.

In a televised speech on the eve of the commemoration of the 1962 uprising, he accused the Houthis of attempting to restore the Zaidi Imamate that ruled Yemen before the revolution, and promised to defeat them and foil Iran’s plans for the country.

“At the forefront of our national tasks and priorities is the completion of the country’s liberation from terrorism, slavery, tyranny, ignorance and injustice brought about by the new imamates,” Al-Alimi said.

“We must defeat the Iranian project, and the outcome of this decisive battle, in which we have no choice but to win, will determine our freedom and dignity, as well as the future of all Yemeni men and women.”

The Yemeni leader thanked Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman for the support they have provided to the Yemeni people, the transitional council and state bodies, and for facilitating peace talks in the hope of ending the war in the country.

The revolution, which began on Sept. 26, 1962, resulted in the overthrow of the Zaidi Imamate rulers who had controlled northern Yemen for centuries, paving the way for the establishment of the Yemen Arab Republic. Many Yemenis believe the Houthis share similar radical ideologies as the Zaidi Imamate and wish to revive its era, during which rule over the country was limited to Hashemites.

The Houthis have attempted to suppress celebrations of the anniversary of the revolution in areas under their control. They have abducted at least 250 people over the past few days for commemorating the event online or encouraging others to do so. They also deployed forces and armored vehicles in Sanaa, Hodeidah, Taiz, Ibb, Dhamar and other areas to to crack down on any revolutionary rallies.

The Houthis say those who celebrate the revolution are being used by the US and other opponents to put pressure on the militia to halt its attacks on international shipping.

The leader of the group, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, on Thursday vowed that attacks on vessels in waters off the coast of Yemen will continue until Israel ends its war in the Gaza Strip. He also said his forces would defend Hezbollah against Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

“We will continue to support Gaza and Palestine in general, as well as Lebanon and Hezbollah, without hesitation,” he said during a televised speech.

The Houthis say their attacks on ships using missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and drone boats, which began in November, target Israeli, American and British ships in an attempt to put pressure on authorities in Israel to halt their military operations in Gaza.

However, critics say the militia is using outrage in Yemen over the deaths of thousands of civilians in Gaza to gain public support, recruit new fighters and divert attention from its failures to address crumbling services and pay public-sector salaries.

Speaking in the US on Wednesday during an event organized by the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, Al-Alimi called for the Houthis to be globally designated as a terrorist organization in an attempt to deter them from undermining the security of international shipping lanes. He warned that the group would continue to attack ships even if the war in Gaza ended.

“After using the Red Sea as a weapon, Iran and its affiliate militias will continue to blackmail international trade, waterways and the environment in the future,” he said.


‘Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel’: Palestinian president

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US.
Updated 26 September 2024
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‘Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel’: Palestinian president

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US.
  • ‘Israel must stop the war in Lebanon and Palestine,’ Mahmoud Abbas tells UN General Assembly
  • ‘The entire world is responsible for what’s happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank’

LONDON: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urged the international community to stop sending weapons to Israel in order to end the war in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.

“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel,” he told the UN General Assembly.

“This madness can’t continue. The entire world is responsible for what’s happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Abbas’s comments come after the Health Ministry in Gaza on Thursday said at least 41,534 people have been killed in the war, now in its 12th month.

He said the Israeli government took advantage of the Hamas attack last October to launch an all-out genocide against Gaza. 

“It committed and continues to commit war crimes, as acknowledged by the international community,” Abbas added. 

He said Israel is now launching “a new aggression on the Lebanese people,” who are being “subjected to a war of genocide.”

He added: “Israel must stop the war in Lebanon and in Palestine. We condemn this aggression, and we demand that it stops immediately.

“Israel has reoccupied the Gaza Strip in its entirety … Seventy-five percent of everything in Gaza has been fully destroyed.” 

More than 600 people have been killed since Monday in Israeli strikes on Lebanon, which follow nearly a year of cross-border fire with Hezbollah in parallel with the Gaza war.

Abbas called on the international community to impose sanctions on Israel, and said the country does not deserve to be a UN member. 

“The international community must immediately impose sanctions on Israel. The massacres, the crimes, the genocide that Israel has been perpetrating against our people since its inception in 1948 to this very day won’t go unpunished,” he said.

“Israel, which refuses to implement UN resolutions, doesn’t deserve to be a member in this international organization.”

Abbas called for a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza, and a full Israeli withdrawal from the territory. 

“We refuse the establishment of buffer zones or taking any part from Gaza,” he said. “We won’t allow a single centimeter of Gaza to be taken.

“The State of Palestine must shoulder its responsibilities in the Gaza Strip and impose its full mandate on it and jurisdiction on it, including the border checkpoints, especially the Rafah international border.”

He said the Palestinian Authority should have control over all Palestinian territories, and it would hold elections once the war is over. Hamas has governed Gaza since 2007.

Abbas concluded by saying: “Palestine will be free. It will be free, despite anyone who objects to that. Our people will live on the land of their fathers and grandfathers, as they’ve done for more than 6,000 years. They’ll continue their legitimate struggle for independence. The occupation will end.”