Palestinian official claims: “...we did not refuse any offer for negotiations that seek to implement the two-state solution."
By ADAM RASGONUpdated: FEBRUARY 4, 2018 00:34Mahmoud Abbas(photo credit: REUTERS)
Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, slammed on Friday US officials’ statements suggesting that Abbas may not return to the negotiating table.On Thursday, Channel 10 quoted senior American officials who intimated that Abbas may not agree to return to negotiations with Israel.“These claims are disgraceful incitement,” Abu Rudaineh said in a statement published on the official PA news site Wafa. “We affirm that we did not refuse any offer for negotiations that seek to implement the two-state solution... We remain committed to serious negotiations as a way to establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital along 1967 lines.”Since US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and initiated the relocation of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to the city, Abbas has said the Palestinians will no longer work with an American-dominated peace process, and called for the establishment of a multilateral mechanism to replace it.Following a meeting with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in Ramallah on Wednesday, Abbas said that the Middle East Quartet and a number of Arab and European countries should take charge of such a multilateral mechanism. The Quartet consists of the US, European Union, UN and Russia.White House officials, however, have said they plan to publish an American plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and believe it will appeal to the Palestinians.For its part, Israel has said it will only work with a US-led peace process.Abu Rudaineh also said “serious negotiations first require the other side to believe in the two-state solution and negotiations and not dictates.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made statements in support of a two-state solution, but many members of his government vociferously oppose it.