President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly told Israeli officials that without movement in the peace process, he fears conditions in the region will rapidly deteriorate, the daily newspaper Haaretz reported Friday.
Haaretz reported that Abbas feared the “descent into violence,” and noted there was a window of “two to three weeks” in which changes must take place in order to stabilize the area.
Sources within the Palestinian Authority were quoted as saying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was primarily responsible for the increased tension, and blamed him for the recent violence in Jerusalem.
“He was the one to send rightists into Al-Aqsa,” one unnamed source said.
Since the start of Ramadan at the end of August, then through the at times overlapping September and October Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, access to the holy city of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque for Palestinians was severely restricted.
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