RAMALLAH: According to a senior Palestinian official, Israel's unilateral activities in the Palestinian territories harm the prospects for peace and a two-state solution.
According to an official statement carried by Palestinian state news agency WAFA, Hussein Al-Sheikh, Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), made the remarks during a meeting with visiting US senior diplomats in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday, ahead of an expected visit by US President Joe Biden.
Al-Sheikh with other senior Palestinian officials, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, Hady Amr, attended the sessions, according to news report.
Palestinians "need security and stability," the PLO Secretary-General told US officials, "ending the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 border." He told the authorities that it is critical to follow through on the peace agreements reached between the PLO and Israel and UN resolutions "that have never been implemented."
According to the statement, the group examined the rising tensions in the West Bank as a result of daily Israeli army incursions on Palestinian towns and villages and trips by Israeli radicals to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem.
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