- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- Abbas says he doesn’t trust Washington to help end the conflict with Israel.
- Comments come at a time when President Joe Biden is doing more to isolate Russia over its attack on Ukraine.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said again that he didn’t trust Washington to help end the conflict with Israel, and he thanked Russia for its part.
Abbas reaffirmed his support for the so-called Quartet of international mediators, which includes Russia, the U.S., the U.N., and the European Union. However, he said that the U.S. could not be left to act on its own.
“We don’t trust America and you know our position. We don’t trust it, we don’t rely on it, and under no circumstances can we accept that America is the sole party in resolving a problem,” Abbas told Putin at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Kazakhstan.
“It can be within the Quartet since it is a great country but we will never accept it as the only one,” he said, in televised remarks.
The 87-year-old Palestinian leader has always been suspicious of the U.S., which is Israel’s main ally. His comments come at a time when President Joe Biden is doing more to isolate Russia over its attack on Ukraine.
Abbas said that he was “100% happy” with how Russia treated the Palestinian people.
“Justice and international law are important to Russia, and that’s enough for us,” he said.
“When you say you believe in international legitimacy, that’s all I need to know. So, the Russian position makes us happy and content.”
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