Palestinian President Abbas arrives in Cairo for talks with Sisi over US Jerusalem decision

Ahram Online , Sunday 10 Dec 2017

Abbas
File Photo: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses attendees during the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 30, 2015 (Photo: Reuters)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived Cairo late Sunday for a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Monday to discuss developments following the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, state owned MENA agency reported. 

 

Monday’s meeting comes following an invitation extended by El-Sisi to Abbas to hold a bilateral consultations summit to discuss developments related to the US decision, as well as means of dealing with the crisis in a way that preserves the rights of the Palestinian people, according to an Egyptian Presidency statement. 

 

On Sunday, El-Sisi and Abbas agreed in a phone call on the importance of intensifying communication with different international partners to explain potential negative repercussions of the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

 

The two leaders discussed the implications of the decision, as well as ways of reaching a just solution that would guarantee the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to establish their own independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

 

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump announced that the US would recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing a decades-old US policy that the status of the city must be determined in negotiations with the Palestinians.

 

The Palestinians hope to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

 

Trump's decision has sparked anger in Palestinian territories and Arab countries, and has been met with condemnation from countries around the world.

 

Egypt has officially condemned the decision, maintaining its official stance supporting the two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

 

The Arab League's foreign ministers also called Sunday on the US to revoke its decision on Jerusalem and expressed its support for a Palestinian state on the 4 June 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.

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