The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, during his visit to Ramallah to meet the president of the PNA Abu Mazen, expressed condolences for “the innocent Palestinian civilians who have lost their lives in the escalation of violence over the past year”.
After talks held in Jerusalem with Israeli leaders, Blinken traveled to Ramallah, in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, to meet Palestinian Authority President Abu Mazen. His long-planned tour, which began on Sunday in Egypt, took a different turn after the deadly explosion of Israeli-Palestinian clashes in recent days.
“We think it’s important take de-escalation measuresstop the violence, reduce tensions,” the US secretary of state said after meeting with Abu Mazen at the Palestinian Authority headquarters. Blinken reiterated hisAmerican opposition to Israeli settlements and then announced that he had asked some of his advisers to stay in the area to reduce tensions but that this will only be possible if the parties are ready.
Antony Blinken meets Abu Mazen in Ramallah
Abu Mazen, for his part, reiterated that Israel is responsible for the recent escalation of violence, emphasizing how the policies of the Jewish state “undermine the two-state solution” with the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, the expropriation of land, violence by settlers, army raids on Palestinian cities, the demolition of houses and eviction orders.
Blinken reiterated that the US will continue to oppose similar steps by Israel. Already yesterday, in the joint press conference with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of American diplomacy had underlined that the two-state solution is “the best way” to guarantee security for both sides.
Abu Mazen also raised the issue of the Palestinian request to have full-fledged member status at the United Nations, an initiative on which Washington has expressed its opposition and has already let Ramallah know that it will veto it.
“We have taken a series of decisions, which we have begun to implement, to protect the interests of our people after having exhausted all other options”, added the Palestinian president, referring to the announced suspension of coordination with Israel on security after the military raid on the Jenin refugee camp, which left 10 Palestinians dead, the vast majority militiamen. The move was condemned by the US which nevertheless received reassurances, during a private meeting in recent days between Abu Mazen and CIA director Bill Burns, that security coordination has only been partially revoked.
