Palestinian president slams U.S. plan for excluding Jerusalem

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammed the Middle East peace plan that the United States intends to declare soon for excluding Jerusalem, the official Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported.

"The Palestinian cause is passing through difficult circumstances, but the Palestinian people and their leadership are on a level of responsibility," said Abbas during his meeting with the new government in Ramallah on Saturday.

On Saturday evening, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye and 24 ministers were sworn in before Abbas at the Palestinian Authority (PA) headquarters in the West Bank city.

"We have many difficult missions, mainly the Deal of the Century, or the U.S. peace plan, which will be declared soon to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Abbas.

Abbas told Ishtaye and the ministers of the new government that the Palestinians rejected the U.S. plan because it excluded Jerusalem.

Mohammad Shtayyeh is sworn in as a Palestinian Prime Minister, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 13, 2019. /Reuters Photo

"Therefore, we don't want to hear the rest of the plan," he stressed.

Ties between the United States and the PA were severed after U.S. President Donald Trump declared in late 2017 that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the city in 2018.

"There will be lots of developments in the coming days, but we will cooperate together to confront it," Abbas said.

Hamas says formation of new Palestinian gov't deepens internal division

The Islamic Hamas movement, ruler of the Gaza Strip, slammed on Saturday the formation of a new Palestinian government for deepening the internal division.

Khalil al-Hayya, deputy chief of Hamas and a member in Hamas' politburo, said the new government of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye "is very far from any Palestinian national accord or any legal measure."

"We were hoping and will hope to go for a national unity government that will be a salvation government that rescues the current national Palestinian status," said al-Hayya in a press statement.

He also criticized the new Palestinian government as "a separatist government that doesn't include all factions and political powers."

"This government was made to empower the internal Palestinian division and again proves that there is no return to a real national unity," the Hamas deputy chief concluded.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency