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Palestine Liberation Organisation Lists Conditions For Restoring Ties With Washington

GAZA (Sputnik) - The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has laid forth certain conditions for normalising ties with the United States.
Sputnik

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas chaired a meeting of the PLO Executive Committee on Saturday.

The committee agreed to restore ties with the US if the new administration allows for the PLO office in Washington to resume its work.

Other conditions include withdrawing support for Israeli plans to extend its sovereignty over parts of the West Bank and settlement activity and resuming two-state solution discussions.

In September, US President-elect Joe Biden said that it was important for more countries to recognise Israel as a sovereign state but said it was just as important to continue working toward a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

The two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict envisages an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River. The boundary between the two states is still subject to dispute and negotiation, with Palestinian and Arab leadership insisting on the "1967 borders", considered unacceptable by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to extend Israel's sovereignty over Palestinian lands, but the plan, which comes under outgoing US President Donald Trump's peace deal for some countries in the Middle East, has been postponed. Netanyahu's plans to extend Israeli sovereignty over Palestinian territories has been condemned by members of the United Nations and the European Union.

Hamas said at the end of June that it would consider the extension of Israeli sovereignty over additional parts of the West Bank a declaration of war against the Palestinians.

In May, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas terminated all treaties with the US and Israel after Netanyahu announced plans to extend Tel Aviv's sovereignty to some parts of the West Bank during a swearing-in ceremony of his new cabinet.

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