JAKARTA - US President Joe Biden vowed to continue efforts to end the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, although he did not offer a new proposal to restart stalled political dialogue between the two sides.
After meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Friday, July 15, Biden acknowledged that the creation of an independent Palestinian state is far from being a reality without progress on new talks with Israel.
"Even if we are not currently ready to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up trying to bring ... the two sides closer," he said.
Biden acknowledged that after years of failed attempts to resolve the conflict, Palestinians living under severe restrictions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza are suffering.
"You can feel the sadness and frustration," he said.
Before continuing his Middle East trip to Saudi Arabia, Biden visited a hospital in East Jerusalem and promised a package of financial and technical assistance worth $100 million.
In addition to aid for East Jerusalem hospitals, he will announce steps to upgrade telecommunications networks in the West Bank and Gaza to 4G standards by the end of 2023, as well as other measures to ease travel between the West Bank and neighboring Jordan.
There will be a separate USD 201 million (approximately IDR 3 trillion) fund package provided through the UN aid agency UNRWA to help Palestinian refugees.
Meanwhile, Abbas said the prospect of a two-state solution, a mechanism pushed by the US and the United Nations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was set back and its chances "may not last long".
"Isn't it time for this occupation to end?" said Abbas.
He repeated demands that the US open a consulate in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of a future independent state, as well as remove the Palestine Liberation Organization from its list of terrorist groups and allow it to reopen its Washington office.
Abbas also asked for US support to bring to justice the killers of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American citizen killed in an Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Jenin.
Prior to his visit, Palestinian leaders accused Biden of prioritizing Israel's integration into regional security arrangements with Arab states over their own interests, including self-determination and continuing Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, occupied after a war in 1967.
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