Rabat – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Tuesday, May 19, that all agreements Palestine has signed with the United States and Israel are null and void.
“The Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the obligations based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones,” Abbas said.
The announcement comes after Israel pledged to annex the West Bank by July, a move that would dismantle any negotiations of the long hoped for two-state solution and could lead to further conflict in the region.
During the emergency address from Ramallah, the president affirmed his continued commitment to ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict under a two-state solution.
Commentators question the veracity of Abbas’ annulation of agreements, reporting that this is not the first time he has threatened to end security cooperation with Israel.
Abbas did not expand on what an end to peace agreements would entail or mean in practice.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s recently re-appointed prime minister has been laying the groundwork for annexation under the support of US President Donald Trump’s Middle Eastern Plan. Trump’s plan offers Israel support to annex at least one-third of the West Bank.
Abbas’ intention to declare void all peace agreements with Israel is reportedly meant to “shoulder all responsibilities and obligations in front of the international community as an occupying power over the territory of the occupied state of Palestine.”
The US’s close partnership will make them “fully responsible for the oppression of the Palestinian people,” Abbas said.
Netanyahu’s push for Israeli sovereignty over land inhabited by more than 300,000 Palestinians is already causing international uproar. The European Union and United Nations deem annexation “a serious violation of international law” and a “devastating blow to the two-state solution.”
Last week, King Abdullah II of Jordan warned Israel that annexation would lead to “massive conflict” between Jordan and Israel.
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