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Biden's visit to Ramallah only aims to avoid int'l reproach: analyst

Xinhua, March 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday was made only to avoid any international reproach to the United States, an Palestinian analyst said.

On Tuesday, Biden made a two-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories where he held a series of meetings with Israeli officials, and visited the site where an American citizen was stabbed to death in Tel Aviv asking the Palestinians to condemn violence.

However, during the meeting with Biden in Ramallah on Wednesday evening, Abbas didn't condemn the stabbing attack in Jaffa, but expressed his condolences to Biden and told him that Israel had also killed about 200 Palestinians in the last five months.

The visit of Biden to the region was made as a wave of violent tension has been going on between Israel and the Palestinians, which broke out in early October and left at least 190 Palestinians and 34 Israelis killed.

A well-informed official source on Thursday told al-Quds Daily on condition of anonymity that during the meeting, Abbas strongly rejected a four-point initiative presented by Biden over ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including halting Israeli settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as a Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

Biden's initiative was made as news reports said that a U.S. initiative will be presented soon to the UN Security Council for a resolution aiming at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

However, Abdul Majid Sweilem, a Ramallah-based Palestinian political analyst, played down the importance of Biden's visit to Ramallah and considered it as a step aiming at avoiding international reproach.

"All what was discussed during the meeting that lasted for two hours at President Abbas' office in Ramallah just repeated ideas urging the Palestinians to get back to the negotiation table and that the United States is still sticking to the principle of the two-state solution," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Reyad al-Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, told "Voice of Palestine" radio that Abbas told Biden in Ramallah that if Israel doesn't show full commitments to the signed peace treaties, the Palestinians will boycott the agreements.

Abbas told Biden that giving the Palestinians a hope and ensuring a political horizon to push the two-state solution will be the key for peace and stability, adding that the ongoing settlements and the devotion of (Israeli) occupation are major reasons for violence and bloodshed. Endit