President Mahmud Abbas announced on Saturday that the Palestinian Authority will “reconsider” its ties with the United States following Washington’s veto of a Palestinian application for full UN membership earlier this week.
“The Palestinian leadership will reconsider bilateral relations with the United States to ensure the protection of our people’s interests, our cause, and our rights,” Abbas told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
“On the heels of the United States’ use of veto power” in the UN Security Council, according to Wafa, were his statements.
Twelve of the Council’s member nations supported the resolution endorsing full Palestinian membership on Thursday, while two—Britain and Switzerland—voted against it.
The only country to vote against the resolution, using its veto power, was the United States, Israel’s most steadfast ally.
“Develop a new strategy to protect Palestinian national decisions independently and follow a Palestinian agenda rather than an American vision or regional agendas,” stated Abbas on behalf of the Palestinian leadership.
“We will not remain captive to policies that have proven their failure and have been exposed to the entire world,” he declared in reference to Palestinians.
Furthermore, he claimed that the US government’s position had “generated unprecedented anger among the Palestinian people and the populations in the region, potentially pushing the region towards further instability, chaos, and terrorism.”
