Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas plans to announce that the Palestinians are no longer bound by the landmark Oslo Accords at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly meeting, a top Palestine Liberation Organization official told the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency.
PLO Executive Committee member Ahmad Majdalani told Ma'an that Abbas planned to say he would no longer abide by the agreement known as Oslo II, blaming Israel for its own a lack of commitment.
“In light of the lack of commitment by Israel, the Palestinian leadership has decided that it isn’t bound by the agreement anymore and president Abbas will announce that before the U.N. General Assembly,” the Majdalani told Ma’an on Sunday.
In this June 22, 2015 file photo, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heads the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee meeting at the Palestinian Authority headquarters, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)
The landmark Oslo peace deal was signed in two stages in 1993 and 1995 between Israel and PLO leader Yasser Arafat and it was overseen by then President Bill Clinton in festive signing ceremonies.
The timing of the reported plans to withdraw from the international agreement that required Israel to hand over large swaths of land to the Palestinians had special significance given the debate over the Iran nuclear agreement in Washington.
The White House has been working hard to assure the public and Congress that Iran would abide by the deal’s provisions years after President Barack Obama is no longer in office.
The PLO official did not describe what alternative security arrangements would be made in place of those detailed in the international agreement. Under Oslo, there are complex security measures for public order and terrorism prevention through which the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian police coordinate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had no comment when asked by TheBlaze for its thoughts on this report.
The PLO official suggested that as a result of the shift in relations resulting from Abbas’ planned announcement, Palestine would thus be considered a state, with its own parliament and government.
Majdalani said that the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah decided it would turn the Palestine National Council into a Palestinian parliament and the PLO Executive Committee into a Palestinian government.
“At this stage, it is still not yet clear what the actual implications of such a decision will be, but it will be accompanied by an announcement by Abbas at the United Nations General Assembly session at the end of the month, where he is expected to say that in light of the annulment of the agreements, Palestine will be considered a state under occupation," Avi Issacharoff, a well-known Israeli analyst of Palestinian affairs explained in the Times of Israel Monday.
Under the Oslo agreements, Israel agreed to withdraw from Gaza and all the major cities in the West Bank and hand them to Palestinian Authority control.
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 and does not recognize Israel, one of the stipulations of the agreement.
