“You can’t ignore the world’s position,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday, a week after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israeli settlements.
Abbas was speaking in his first interview with an Israeli journalist the since the vote took place, in a meeting with representatives of the Council for a Beautiful Israel.
Portions of the interview with a journalist from the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper were published on the paper’s English language sister-site Ynet news.
The discussion focused on Israeli settlements, with Abbas reiterating a long-held stance that settlements “don’t advance peace, but rather are an obstacle to peace.”
However, he noted, “A distinction must be made between Israel and the settlement project, which the world opposes and which we also oppose.”
In addition to the resolution, the Palestinians have welcomed the speech that US Secretary of State John Kerry made on Wednesday outlining principles for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
“We definitely received the UN resolution and Kerry’s speech positively. If the settlements would stop, we would be ready to start talking without preconditions,” Abbas told Yedioth Ahronoth.
“Benjamin Netanyahu cannot continue saying that only he is right. You can’t ignore the world’s position,” he continued, referring to the Israeli premiere’s swift condemnations of the resolution and scaling back of working ties with countries that voted in favor of it.
“The entire world is burning,” Abbas added. “There is extremism and ISIS in the region. Let’s promote peace so that peace can prevail in this troubled region.”
Despite American support in ending Israeli settlement building, Abbas says he knows that the US’s priorities lie with Israel and not with the Palestinians.
“We are aware that the United States will continue to be Israel’s friend and not a friend of ours,” he said. “Its decision on how to vote in the UN and Kerry’s speech—the US is coming from the place of a true friend who wants to save Israel.”
He went on to deny claims that the US and the Palestinians colluded together to draft the resolution.
“There wasn’t direct cooperation,” he told Yedioth Ahronoth. “The Americans received the draft resolution and announced their position in accordance with their policies. We’ve been talking with the Americans for a long time now about passing the resolution regarding ceasing the settlements.”
On the topic of cooperation, Abbas addressed recent comments from Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in which he suspended all political and civil coordination with the Palestinian Authority following the UN vote, but noted that security coordination would continue.
“Avigdor Liberman calls to freeze economic relations with us and to continue security coordination. What does he think—that we work for him?,” Abbas mused.
“We will continue security coordination because it’s in the joint interest of the two sides,” he continued. “But to be clear, we don’t work for Netanyahu or for Liberman or for anybody else. We are not the army of one general. We are a people, and we will maintain our dignity.”
Asked if the Palestinian Authority is wary of the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, and what it could mean for US-Palestinian relations, Abbas replied “We’ll take care of the relations with him after he’s sworn in on January 20.”
“We’re waiting for him to go enter the White House, and then we’ll discuss with him the matters at hand.”
Abbas concluded the Yedioth Ahronoth interview by calling on “peace-loving people on both sides to raise their voices.”
“There’s an opportunity now that we must not miss,” he said. “Yitzhak Rabin was the opponent of the Palestinian people, but he decided in favor of peace. We must not allow extremists to unite against the idea of peace.”
“I am optimistic and will remain optimistic. If I stop believing, I’ll go home. I won’t stay in the job if I stop believing that we can achieve peace.”
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