Senior official says Abbas meeting with U.S. delegation in Ramallah "positive"

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-25 06:09:14|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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RAMALLAH, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The meeting of a United States official delegation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held late on Thursday in the West Bank city of Ramallah was "positive," according to a senior Palestinian official.

The American delegation, which held talks with Abbas at his headquarters in the city, included U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy and top negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, and Adviser Jared Kushner and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell.

Their regional tour included holding talks with Saudi, Qatari, Emirati, Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian officials.

Nabil Abu Rdineh, an aide to Abbas said in an official statement that the meeting and the talks were "constructive, deep and positive." However, while the meeting was held in Ramallah, dozens of Palestinians demonstrated in the city to protest the visit.

"The talks had seriously tackled all in-common issues," said Abu Rdineh, adding "President Abbas reiterated to the delegation the Palestinian political stances, mainly the principle of the two-state solution on 1967 borders and stopping all settlement activities."

The Abbas aide unveiled that the U.S. delegation and President Abbas "agreed to continue their dialogue which aims at reaching a comprehensive and historic peace agreement." According to Abu Rdineh, Abbas stressed the international resolutions, the signed agreements, the roadmap and the Arab peace initiative.

At the beginning of the meeting, Abbas said "the delegation works for peace and we are working together in order to reach soon what President Trump described as a peace deal," adding "We know that the situation is difficult and complicated, but nothing is impossible amid the current good exerted efforts."

"We highly appreciate the efforts of President Trump, who announced from the beginning that he will work on a historic peace deal, and repeated this more than once during our meetings in Washington, Riyadh or Bethlehem," Abbas said.

For his part, Kushner said that President Trump "sends to President Abbas his best wishes and best hopes, and we have been sent today from Washington to talk about a very important subject, peaceful relations between the countries of the region as a whole."

"President Trump is very optimistic and hopes for a better future for the Palestinian and Israeli people," Kushner said. "We hope they can work together, live together for many years and have a much better life."

Kushner told Abbas that President Trump "is hopeful and grateful for all the efforts you have made so far, and is also grateful for these discussions and relations."

Abbas's meeting with the U.S. delegation coincided with demonstrations in the city of Ramallah, where dozens of Palestinians gathered at Al-Manara Square in the center of the city to denounce the visit of the delegation.

During the demonstration, which was called by the national and Islamic factions, the demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and signs written in both Arabic and English, rejecting the American "bias" toward Israel.

Issam Baker, coordinator of the national and Islamic faction told Xinhua that the demonstrators stressed the need not to return to negotiations under U.S. auspices, which has been tried for more than 20 years.

He added that the Palestinians call on permanent members of the UN Security Council to shoulder their responsibility to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

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