Palestine refuses to cooperate with U.S. on Middle Eastern settlement - Abbas to Putin
MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax) - Palestine refuses to cooperate with the United States as a mediator in the process of the Middle Eastern settlement, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said.
"We state that from now on we refuse to cooperate in any form with the U.S. in its status of a mediator, as we stand against its actions," Abbas said at negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
At the same time, Palestine does not have any reluctance against the mediation format in the settlement process being multilateral, he said.
"For instance, 'the quartet' plus some other countries in the mold of how the deal on Iran was achieved," Abbas said.
By way of explanation of his stance at negotiations, Abbas provided several examples of the U.S.'s actions, such as the recent decision to move the country's embassy to Jerusalem.
"President bewildered us once again, it was a slap in our face, I'm referring to the decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and, subsequently, consider the united Jerusalem the capital of Israel," Abbas said.
Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal said in an interview with Interfax earlier that Abbas intends to discuss with the Russian leader the creation of a new mechanism of the international mediation for settling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to replace the Middle Eastern Quartet, as well as Russia's role in the new mechanism.