Blinken, PA’s Abbas discuss Security Council session on settlements

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday received a phone call from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during which they discussed the upcoming United Nations Security Council session on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue.

Resolution on Israel’s settlements

Members of the Security Council have been negotiating a draft resolution on Israeli settlements in the West Bank drafted by the United Arab Emirates in coordination with the Palestinians.

A vote on the resolution is expected to take place on Monday amid Palestinian fears that it would be vetoed by the US.

In a letter to the Security Council on February 13, Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the recent decision by the Israeli government to advance settlement activity in the West Bank was “further proof of a deliberate Israeli policy to colonize and annex the Palestinian land, in grave breach of international law.” Mansour called on the Security Council to speak with one voice to send a message to Israel that “it must cease all illegal politics and measures forthwith, and that it will face flagrant accountability for its flagrant contempt of international law and the international community.”

During the phone call with Blinken, Abbas stressed the need “to compel Israel to stop all its “unilateral measures, including settlements, house demolitions, incursions into cities, villages, camps and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and killings,” the PA’s official news agency Wafa said.

US SECRETARY of State Antony Blinken meets with PA head Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, last week. (credit: Ronaldo Schemidt/Reuters)

It said the issue of the Palestinian turn to the Security Council was also discussed, but did not provide additional details.

Abbas called on the US administration “to intervene quickly and effectively to put pressure on Israel to halt all these dangerous moves so as to open a political horizon based on the implementation of the two-state solution and the resolutions of international legitimacy,” Wafa added.

The agency quoted Blinken as saying the US administration would continue its efforts to stop all unilateral actions.