Abbas: The Palestinian Issue Can Be Resolved Through Negotiation Like Iran and 5+1

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, once again expressed support for the French political initiative to hold a peace conference aimed at reviving the stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, calling for this conference to be conducted in a manner similar to the negotiations between the international community and Iran. According to AFP, Mr. Abbas stated on Tuesday, March 2, that the Palestinians hope that the French initiative, modeled after the 5+1 negotiations with Iran, will also lead to a resolution of the Palestinian issue. Since July 2015, when the Islamic Republic of Iran and the international community reached a final agreement on Iran's nuclear program, Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly called for using this type of negotiation as a model for the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Laurent Fabius, two months ago while still serving as France's Foreign Minister, proposed the French government's political initiative to revive the dead peace process through the establishment of an international conference. Following the announcement of this plan, the French ambassador in Tel Aviv also officially presented its details to the Israeli government last month, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firmly opposed it. The last round of high-level Israeli-Palestinian negotiations took place in the fall of 2008 during the final months of Ehud Olmert's government. Since then, occasional interactions between the parties have been observed, but these superficial contacts have also been closed since April 2014. In the absence of political contacts, relations between the parties have been marked by severe tension and crisis, with Israel targeting Gaza with heavy fire for 51 days in the summer of 2014. Meanwhile, the latest round of the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians has entered its sixth month, with the number of Palestinian casualties during this period reaching about 190. Israel claims that during this period, one American, two Eritrean and Sudanese refugees, and 29 Israelis have been killed; AFP has recorded the number of Israelis killed as 28. Late on Tuesday, March 2, two more Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, marking another bloody day in the critical and bloody relations between the two sides. The Israeli army stated that the deceased Palestinians were two teenagers who had superficially injured an Israeli man in the settlement of 'Ali' with a baton and knife in southern Nablus. Meanwhile, a group of extremist Jewish right-wingers led by Yehuda Glick has once again visited the Temple Mount in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem. According to the Jerusalem Post, this group's visit on Tuesday took place after obtaining the necessary permits from the Ministry of Internal Security and the Jerusalem police. Several Israeli police forces also accompanied these individuals during their visit. Such visits by right-wing Jewish activists to Al-Aqsa have previously provoked Palestinians and led to severe reactions from them. The 'Knife Intifada' also began last October following a visit by these extremist right-wing Jews to Al-Aqsa on the night of the 'Rosh Hashanah' holiday. After this visit, the Israeli Prime Minister assured the King of Jordan that the installation of surveillance cameras at Al-Aqsa would 'demonstrate that Israel does not intend to harm this holy site.' One Israeli member of the Jerusalem City Council told the Jerusalem Post that the return of Yehuda Glick and his associates to Al-Aqsa 'is pushing us towards more bloodshed with their extremist and provocative actions.' Meanwhile, Riyad al-Maliki, the Foreign Minister of the Palestinian Authority, called on the United Nations to declare the entry of residents from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem into its member countries as 'prohibited.' According to the Jerusalem Post, Mr. Maliki stated on Tuesday during a speech at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Palestinians are facing 'terror and street executions of their youth by Israel.' According to the Palestinian Foreign Minister, 'Member states of the UN should not engage directly or indirectly with the occupying system.' Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, described the Palestinian Foreign Minister's call to ban settlers from traveling to UN member countries as 'complete anti-Semitism.'