Palestine Confirms Commitment To Holding Parliamentary Elections - Foreign Minister

The Palestinian Authority is committed to holding the general elections, which were recently postponed until Israel guaranteed that the vote could also take place in East Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th May, 2021) The Palestinian Authority is committed to holding the general elections, which were recently postponed until Israel guaranteed that the vote could also take place in East Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said on Wednesday.

In late April, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that the first Palestinian national elections in 15 years, scheduled for May 22, would be postponed. Abbas blamed Israel for hindering the vote in East Jerusalem. He said the vote would be postponed until Israel allowed the participation of East Jerusalem Palestinians in the elections.

"We talked about the circumstances that forced the Palestinian government to postpone the elections that were to be held on May 22 of this year.

We explained clearly and in detail what compelled us to make that decision. We also affirm the commitment of the Palestinian State to hold these elections and we affirm that these elections will take place in all the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem," al-Maliki said at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

The last parliamentary elections were held by Palestinians in 2006. After Abbas announced plans to hold elections on May 22, 2021, it created a rising expectation of rapprochement among the Palestinian factions.