February 21, 2018•Update: February 22, 2018
By Nour Mahd Ali Abu Aisha and Hacer Baser
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Wednesday criticized President Mahmoud Abbas’s Tuesday speech at the UN Security Council, saying it did “not reflect the [Palestinian] national consensus”.
“Abbas’s speech did not attain the level desired,” the group said in a statement.
“Nor did it reflect the national consensus, which wants to terminate the Oslo agreements [of 1993 and 1995] and rejects negotiations with the occupiers,” Hamas said.
In his Tuesday address, Abbas proposed the establishment of a “multilateral international mechanism” tasked with achieving a final Israel-Palestine settlement that would pave the way for Palestinian statehood.
“We believe negotiations are the only path towards peace,” he said, going on to call for an international conference -- at which such a mechanism might be formulated -- sometime later this year.
Hamas, for its part, blasted Abbas’ calls to resume what it called “pathetic negotiations” while Israel continues to violate basic Palestinian rights.
After U.S. President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital late last year, Palestinians eschewed Washington's traditional role as peace broker, prompting Abbas to propose an alternative.
Trump's move undercut long-held understandings regarding Jerusalem's status, which had been considered a “final-status” issue to be negotiated directly between the two parties.
