The agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize ties will kill the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, strengthen "extremists," and undermine the "possibility of peace," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday.
The fractured Palestinian leadership – from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah to Hamas in the Gaza Strip – has united to oppose the historic normalization agreement announced on Thursday.
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"I really believe that this step is a killer to the two-state solution," Erekat said.
Erekat argued that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have less incentive to compromise on a viable Palestinian state "if he believes that Arab countries will line up to make peace with him."
In a conference call with foreign reporters, Erekat said that "people like Netanyahu and extremists in Israel believe that the two-state solution is off the table."
Meanwhile, "extremists on my side are [saying], 'we told you so from the beginning: the two-state solution is off the table,'" he added.
Erekat condemned the agreement as a "desperate attempt" by US President Donald Trump to rack up a success in foreign policy.
He further dismissed senior White House advisor and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, an architect of the UAE-Israel pact, as displaying "a combination of arrogance and ignorance."
Netanyahu said Sunday that the agreement upended the notion that "no Arab state would agree to open peace with Israel before the conflict with the Palestinians would be resolved."
"That mistaken notion gave the Palestinians de facto veto power over peacemaking between Israel and Arab states and held Israel and the Arab world hostage to the most extreme Palestinian demands," Netanyahu said at the Sunday cabinet meeting.
According to a joint US, Israel, UAE statement, the Jewish state has agreed to "suspend" its plans to annex settlements Judea and Samaria. Netanyahu has said he remains committed to West Bank annexations, but agreed to hold for now, as part of his pledge to Trump.
The Palestinians have called for emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation to issue statements rejecting the Israel-UAE deal, but have not received replies from either body, Erekat said.
The top Palestinian negotiator also said he had written to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to ask them to pressure the UAE to cancel the agreement.
"I have received an answer from the Saudi foreign minister reassuring me that Saudi Arabia's position is for a comprehensive peace agreement based on a two-state solution," Erekat said, noting Bahrain had not yet replied.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS.
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