WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. President Joe Biden reportedly rejected a request from Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week, Axios reported.
Citing U.S. and Palestinian sources, Axios reported that Abbas and his aides inquired about the prospect of a meeting with Biden when considering whether to attend the annual gathering.
According to the report, the Palestinians were told by the White House that Biden would not hold any bilateral meetings while in New York and was also unavailable to meet in Washington.
This decision reportedly contributed to Abbas’ decision not to address the General Assembly in person and instead speak remotely by video.
The White House did not comment on the report, which noted Biden held several bilateral meetings during his brief stay in New York.
In his address to the UN last week, Biden said the so-called ‘two-state’ solution was the only way to solve the issue. However, during his speech, he noted that “we are a long way from that goal at this moment”.
In his video address, Abbas said “current and former” Zionist cabinets had persisted in evading a solution and suggested he could reverse recognition of the 1967 borders with the Zionist regime if it did not withdraw from East Al-Quds, the occupied West Bank and Gaza within the next year.
“If the Israeli occupation authorities continue to entrench the reality of one apartheid state as is happening today, our Palestinian people and the entire world will not tolerate such a situation,” Abbas said.
The Zionist regime illegally annexed East Al-Quds in 1967 and considers all of the city as its ‘capital’. Palestinians want East Al-Quds to be the capital of a state they seek to establish.
Zionist prime minister Naftali Bennett, who presides over a fragile coalition cabinet, has ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state and said his administration would continue expanding existing illegal Zionist settlements in the occupied territories.