“I know Netanyahu well and have a lot to do with him, he is a man who does not believe in peace,” Abbas said in an interview with Egypt’s Cairo News TV channel.
Netanyahu, who ruled Israel for 15 years, returned to power after winning elections earlier this month at the head of a conservative alliance, the most right-wing in the country’s history, according to the national press.
I take care of him because I have no other choice, Abbas said.
We will continue to work as long as there is a glimmer of hope for the Palestinian cause, despite the fact that the United Nations has ignored the issue for more than 70 years and is reluctant to implement its own resolutions, he stressed.
“We cling to the hope of a Palestinian state (…) Regardless of the pressure, we will continue to demand our rights,” he said.
The head of state blamed the neighboring nation for the impossibility of holding Palestinian elections in the occupied territories because they refused to hold them in East Jerusalem, an area occupied since the 1967 war.
Abbas also called on Israel to end its unilateral actions and release the money it is raising on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
That country’s cabinet agreed not to provide these funds in retaliation for the PNA’s policy of providing economic aid to Palestinian militiamen detained, killed and wounded by Jewish state forces. The scholarship also includes their families.
The President criticized the bias of the United States, whose government he accused of not recognizing Palestine and denying it the right to join the UN as a full member.
In contrast, he stressed that the Palestinian people maintain 110 embassies around the world, a mark of their international recognition.
“We own a thing, we maintain our principles, we maintain our independent decision and we will not take direction from anyone,” he warned.
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