Blinken Wants Abbas to Help Washington Push for 'Two-State Solution'

Residents searching for survivors after the Israeli bombing in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Sunday (AP)
Residents searching for survivors after the Israeli bombing in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Sunday (AP)
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Blinken Wants Abbas to Help Washington Push for 'Two-State Solution'

Residents searching for survivors after the Israeli bombing in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Sunday (AP)
Residents searching for survivors after the Israeli bombing in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Sunday (AP)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken his readiness to "assume power" in the Gaza Strip, but without war or violence, Palestinian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

They indicated that Abbas also wanted to ensure the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was assuming responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Abbas said that the "crazy Israeli war" on Gaza is the annihilation of the Palestinian cause and the entire Palestinian existence under the political agenda of the far-right government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, and Itamar Ben-Gvir.

He stressed that parties supporting Israel must know that this war has been ongoing since the formation of this cabinet.

Blinken explained that he was visiting Ramallah to confirm that the US administration considered the post-war stage as guidance.

He asserted that before Oct. 07 will not be the same as after that date, reiterating that the US and Western countries support Israel's right to defend itself.

Washington seeks for the current tragic situation to be "a turning point in the region," according to Blinken.

The Secretary stated there were several proposals for the post-war Gaza Strip, noting that the US administration prefers a solution that combines the Palestinian Authority, in cooperation with international organizations, and a peacekeeping force.

He hoped this would open horizons for a political process and ultimately lead to a two-state solution.

The Arab and Western support, "no matter how modest," will be crucial to the efforts aimed at alleviating the deteriorating conditions in Gaza and laying the foundation for what will replace "Hamas" as the ruling authority of the Strip, according to Blinken.

Blinken said that the Middle East tour aimed to mobilize regional support for Washington's efforts to transform the current crisis into an opportunity to move toward reunifying Gaza and the West Bank.

He added that the US administration believes that the Palestinian Authority must be allowed to play a pivotal role in the next stage in Gaza.

However, the Palestinian President linked the return of the Authority to the Strip with a "comprehensive political solution" to the conflict.

Abbas reaffirmed that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the State of Palestine.

"We will fully assume our responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip."

He called for an immediate halt to the devastating Israeli war on Gaza and urged the swift provision of humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, food, water, electricity, and fuel, to the war-torn enclave.

Abbas said: "We meet again under extremely difficult circumstances, and there are no words to describe the genocidal war and destruction that our Palestinian people in Gaza are enduring at the hands of the Israeli war machinery, with no regard for international law."

"How can we remain silent when ten thousand Palestinians, including four thousand children, have been killed, and tens of thousands have been injured, and when tens of thousands of homes, infrastructure, hospitals, shelters, and water reservoirs have been destroyed?" the President stressed.

Abbas warned against the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from Gaza, the West Bank, or Jerusalem, emphasizing complete rejection of this scenario.

He also highlighted the appalling situation in the West Bank and Jerusalem, where killings and assaults on land, people, and holy sites are taking place at the hands of Israeli occupation forces and extremist settlers who engage in ethnic cleansing, discrimination, and expropriation of Palestinian tax funds.

He called on the US to call for the "immediate halt" of Israeli crimes.

The President reiterated that proper security and peace can only be achieved by ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the 1967 borders.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.