The agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize ties would kill the two-state solution, strengthen extremists and undermine the possibility of peace, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sunday.
The fractured Palestinian leadership — from the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank to Hamas in the Gaza Strip — is united in its opposition to the UAE-Israel deal announced Thursday by US President Donald Trump.
“I really believe that this step is a killer to the two-state solution,” Erekat said.
He argued that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have less incentive to compromise on a viable Palestinian state “if he believes that Arab countries will line up to make peace with him.”
In a conference call with foreign reporters, Erekat said that “people like Netanyahu and extremists in Israel believe that the two-state solution is off the table.”
Meanwhile, “extremists on my side are [saying], ‘We told you so from the beginning: The two state solution is off the table’,” he added. READ MORE
