Abbas says Gaza is inseparable from a future Palestinian state
Palestinian president backs Makkah defense pact but insists lasting peace requires ending occupation and Palestinian statehood
ANKARA (MNTV) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has described the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement — the mutual-defense pact signed by Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan — as a potential contributor to regional stability, while insisting lasting peace remains impossible without ending Israel’s occupation and establishing a Palestinian state.
Speaking alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Abbas said the pact could help protect the interests of the Muslim world, and reiterated that a just peace requires an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on international law and the Arab Peace Initiative — the 2002 Saudi-led framework offering Israel normalization in exchange for withdrawal from occupied territories.
Gaza was central to the talks.
Abbas said the ceasefire had been achieved through the efforts of Türkiye, Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, but warned humanitarian aid was still not reaching Gaza at the level needed.
He called for implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2803 — adopted in November 2025 to endorse a Gaza peace plan and authorize an international stabilization force — and for the restoration of legitimate Palestinian authority in the territory.
“There can be no state in Gaza, and there can be no state without Gaza,” he said, rejecting any political separation of the two.
Abbas also accused Israel of withholding about $6.5 billion in Palestinian tax revenues, argued financial independence was essential to a viable state, and condemned settler attacks and restrictions on holy sites in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
He cited Resolution 2334, the 2016 measure declaring Israeli settlements in occupied territory to have no legal validity.
Palestinians would remain on their land and under one unified authority, he said, pointing to planned parliamentary and presidential elections on Nov. 28 as a test of renewed political legitimacy.
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