Abbas to declare end of Oslo peace process – report
PA president said set to tell UN General Assembly this month that failure to establish Palestinian state voids past agreements
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is planning to announce the cancellation of the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians, a senior Palestinian official said.
Dr. Ahmed Majdalani, a senior PA official and member of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, told the Palestinian news agency Ma’an in an interview published Sunday that Palestinian leaders were considering the drastic move in light of the failure of those agreements to bring about a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian National Council is set to meet in mid-September to discuss the Palestinians’ next move in the stalled peace talks. One option favored by many, reports suggest, is to announce the cancellation of the Oslo accords begun in 1992, as well as the 1994 Sharm el Sheikh agreement and a later “Paris agreement,” which together establish PA authority over Palestinian civilian and security affairs, and regulate economic relations between the PA and Israel.
Abbas is reportedly slated to announce the decision in his speech at the UN General Assembly later this month. He will note in the speech that the UNGA recognized a “state of Palestine” in 2012. He will argue that Israel has failed to abide by the existing accords by failing to establish a Palestinian state, and that therefore the Palestinians were no longer bound by the agreements.
Palestine, Abbas is expected to declare, is an established state under occupation.
In preparation for the dramatic announcement, Majdalani said he had visited and consulted with various Palestinian factions, visiting Syria recently to meet leaders of factions not represented in the PLO.
Avi Issacharoff contributed to this report.