Jan. 15 (UPI) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday blamed Israel for ruining the ongoing Oslo Accords and said President Donald Trump‘s handling of the peace talks was a “slap in the face” to Palestinians.
“Today is the day that the Oslo Accords end. Israel killed them,” Abbas said in Ramallah, according to Haaretz. “We are an authority without any authority, and an occupation without any cost. Trump threatens to cut funding to the authority because negotiations have failed. When the hell did negotiations start?!”
Abbas went on to say that any future negotiations would require an international committee in the framework of an international conference to minimize U.S. influence.
“We will not accept for the U.S. to be a mediator, because after what they have done to us — a believer shall not be stung twice in the same place,” Abbas said, according to The New York Times.
Abbas also criticized U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, whom he described as “an offensive human being, and I will not agree to meet with him anywhere,” and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who he said “threatens to hit people who hurt Israel with the heel of her shoe.”
As the United States, Israel and Palestine continue talks, details on formal deals have not been released.
However, The New York Times reported earlier that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have attempted to offer Abbas a deal that would likely not be popular among Palestinians because they would not be given East Jerusalem for their capital and Palestinian refugees and their descendants would not be given the right to return.
Abbas referenced the deal and said that the Palestinian leadership had been offered Abu Dis, an East Jerusalem neighborhood they already control, as a potential capital.
“If we lose Jerusalem, what do you want to do? Have a state with Abu Dis as its capital? This is what they’re offering now: Abu Dis,” Abbas said.
