Vatican City, May 20, 2020 / 09:30 am
As Israel's new government considers annexing parts of the West Bank, the Palestine Liberation Organization's chief negotiator appealed to the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States over the phone.
Saeb Erekat, the PLO leader who negotiated the Oslo Accords, called Archbishop Paul Gallagher to say that "the possibility of Israel applying its sovereignty unilaterally" in the Palestinian territories would be "further jeopardizing" to the peace process, according to the Holy See press office.
The news of the call came a day after the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared that the PLO and the Palestinian state would no longer be bound by the peace and security agreements with the Israeli and American governments, including the Oslo peace process, in response to talk that Israel would extend sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
In a statement released on May 20 following the telephone call, the Holy See reaffirmed its support of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and respect for the borders internationally recognized before 1967.