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UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told world leaders Wednesday that he is no longer bound by agreements that have defined relations with Israel for the past two decades and are meant to form the basis for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. But what sounded like a potentially explosive declaration was blunted by the lack of any detail on how he plans to move forward. Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Abbas said Israel had repeatedly violated its commitments, most notably by expanding settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, on lands the Palestinians...

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that the PA will not meet Israel’s demand that it recognize Israel as the Jewish State, Kol Yisrael radio reported. According to the report, Abbas explained this statement using the reasoning that once that the PA agrees to this requirement, there would be no value to the million and a half PA Arabs living in Israel, and no refugee would be allowed to come back to Israel, in keeping with the PA demand that Israel allow millions of Arab refugees to return to their old homes in Israeli cities as part of...

The Independent reports that US Congress blocked $200 million in aid to Palestinian Authority following Mahmoud Abbas' bid for UN membership and is threatening wider sanctions. ..According to the British newspaper, the freezing of the funds, which were to have been provided in the US fiscal year that ends Saturday, is the most tangible sign yet of the seriousness of Congressional leaders' threats of an even wider halt to funding in the coming year if Abbas continues with his actions at the UN...The Obama administration argues that assistance to the Palestinians is "an essential part of the US commitment to...

While diplomatically inconvenient for the Western powers, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' attempt to get the U.N. to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state has elicited widespread sympathy. After all, what choice did he have? According to the accepted narrative, Middle East peace is made impossible by a hard-line Likud-led Israel that refuses to accept a Palestinian state and continues to build settlements. It is remarkable how this gross inversion of the truth has become conventional wisdom. In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu brought his Likud-led coalition to open recognition of a Palestinian state, thereby creating Israel's first national consensus for a two-state...

President Obama is scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, according to a White House briefing. Abbas recently announced he will ask the U.N. Security Council on Friday to back his statehood bid. The United States has vowed to veto any resolution in the Security Council granting statehood status to the Palestinians.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threw down the gauntlet in his September 16 address to the Palestinian people, televised from his Ramallah headquarters. He said he will take the Palestinians’ request for full United Nations member state recognition to the U.N. Security Council on the basis of the 1967 territorial lines, even though he knows that the U.S. has vowed to veto such a resolution. Abbas is asking the international community to formally ratify the exact physical boundaries of an independent Palestinian state on Palestinian terms. Members of the Palestinian observer delegation to the U.N., wasting no time, were seen...

NEW YORK, May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC Executive Director David Harris issued the following statement in response to an op-ed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, which appeared in The New York Times today: (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100816/AJCLOGO) AJC is a global advocacy organization that has long been committed to achieving a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a two-state accord. In that effort, we have met countless times with Palestinian officials, as well as with leaders of surrounding Arab countries, to help build a foundation of coexistence and trust. We wish for nothing more than an end to...

In interview with 'Al-Quds', PA president says Palestinians won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state, accuses Netanyahu of trying to "strip" Israeli-Arabs of their rights. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's talk about an "historic compromise" and said there would be no compromises on core issues such as Jerusalem and borders. Abbas also reiterated his rejection of Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. "We're not talking about a Jewish state and we won't talk about one," Abbas said in an interview with the semi-official Al-Quds newspaper. "For us, there is the...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2009 – Iraqi forces, with U.S. advisors, in recent days have arrested an alleged terrorist financier and recruiter, as well as five suspects in a roadside bomb network, military officials reported. In Balad, the Iraqi army’s emergency response brigade arrested alleged Khitab Hezbollah financier and recruiter Khalid Masur Ismail in Baghdad’s Sadr City district. Ismail, who also is known as Abu Mustafa, was arrested on a court-issued warrant when he identified himself upon contact and admitted to working as a manager for a security firm alleged to be a front for Khitab Hezbollah. During the operation, Iraqi...

Yusuf Islam, the British singer formerly known as Cat Stevens is taking legal action after he was refused entry into the United States. Mr. Islam said the decision to deny him entry on grounds of national security was 'wholly unfounded' and he wants an explanation.''We have now initiated a legal process to try and find out exactly what is going on, and to take all necessary steps to undo the injustice that I have suffered.' 'I am a man of peace and denounce all forms of terrorism and injustice.'Action was taken against the musician, who converted to Islam and changed...