Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas told Meretz chairwoman Zehava Galon that the Oslo Accords are dead and that the PA would demand that Europe take over as mediator in the Israel-PA peace process, following U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
“The United States can not mediate between Israelis and Palestinians. Another mediator is required – a European one alongside the Quartet and Arab states,” Abbas told Galon in a phone call on Friday in which he expressed condolences following the death of Galon's father, according to Channel 10 News.
Abbas also reportedly told Galon that Trump had promised him a year ago that he would broker a good deal to resolve the conflict. "In a few conversations he promised a good deal for the conflict, and then came this bad surprise, which we cannot accept," the PA chairman was quoted as having said.
"We are ready for negotiations, and we never wanted to leave the talks, but unfortunately nobody offers us negotiations, especially the Americans, who now want to punish us," continued Abbas. “The Oslo Accords are dead and, despite the fact that Israel has failed to respect its commitments, we have not yet stopped the security cooperation. We are waiting to see whether there can be diplomatic negotiations with fair mediators."
Galon reportedly told the PA chairman that "the American and Israeli right are leading to a violent and tragic reality that will lead to total loss of trust between Israelis and Palestinians. Nevertheless, the two-state solution is the only possible solution, but there is no courageous Israeli leadership that will lead us."
Abbas had previously declared that he would "no longer accept" any peace plan proposed by the United States following the Jerusalem recognition.
He is now planning to bypass the U.S. and Israel altogether, by asking EU foreign ministers to recognize a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 territories with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.
Last week, Trump, during a meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Davos, threatened to cut off all monetary aid to the PA unless they agreed to resume negotiating with Israel and harshly criticized the PA for boycotting Vice President Mike Pence when he visited Israel.
His comments appeared to confirm a Hadashot report from Wednesday which said that U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley was pushing for further cuts to the American aid to the PA, in addition to the cut in funding to UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees”.