New political path needed to end Israeli occupation: Abbas

Ramallah, Jan 4 (IANS) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that a new political path was needed to end the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinians "will not agree to remain forever under the occupation, and the occupation must end in accordance with the international resolutions and under the umbrella of the international Quartet", Xinhua news agency quoted Abbas as saying on mOnday at the end of a two-day meeting of his Fatah Party's Revolutionary Council.

The international Quartet usually refers to a group of the UN, the US, the European Union and Russia that was established in Madrid in 2002 to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

During the meeting, which was held in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the 86-year-old President announced that the Palestinian Central Council, the mini parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization, will soon hold an important meeting to make decisive and necessary decisions.

"These decisions aim to protect the Palestinian cause and the national merits that will never make a compromise to it whatever the price is," Abbas said.

He warned that if Israel rejects the world-backed two-state solution, "the Palestinians will be obliged to go for other political choices".

In October 2021, Abbas said one of the choices is to implement the UN Security Council's resolution passed in 1947, or build one democratic state on the land of historic Palestine in which the full political and civil rights of the Palestinians are gained.

The last direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, sponsored by the US, lasted nine months and broke down in 2014 over their deep differences on the issues of borders, security, and settlement.

Since then, there have been no diplomatic ties between Israelis and Palestinians because of the latter's rejection of the Jewish state's expansion of settlements and measures against the Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians want to establish an independent state alongside Israel on all the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, including the entire West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.