Abbas Accuses Washington of Backing Likud Annexation Move

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday claimed that the Likud Central Committee vote taken the day before in favor of extending sovereignty over Yehudah and Shomron was a function of American policy.

The resolution “could not be taken without the full support of the U.S. administration, who have refused to condemn Israeli colonial settlements as well as the systematic attacks and crimes of the Israeli occupation against the people of Palestine,” he said, according to the PA’s official Wafa news agency.

“We hope that this vote serves as a reminder for the international community that the Israeli government, with the full support of the U.S. administration, is not interested in a just and lasting peace,” Abbas added.

The Likud resolution, unanimously approved by the Central Committee in a special session, proclaims: “Fifty years after the liberation of Yehudah and Shomron, and with them Yerushalayim, our eternal capital, the Likud Central Committee calls on Likud’s elected leaders to work to allow unhindered construction and to extend Israeli law and sovereignty in all the areas of liberated settlement in Yehudah and Shomron.”

However, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, chairman of the party, was not present for the vote, and a source close to him said on Sunday night that it does not obligate him.