WarSclerotic

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said late Tuesday that the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership is prepared to enter a peace process based on international law and United Nations Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, the official PA news site Wafa reported.

Abbas made the comments hours after Pope Francis said in a Christmas message he hoped Israelis and Palestinians would “resume dialogue and undertake a journey of peace that can put an end to a conflict that for over 70 years has rent the land chosen by the Lord to show his face of love.”

Since shortly after US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and initiated the relocation of the US embassy in the Jewish state to the city, Abbas declared the Palestinians will no longer work with an American-dominated peace process and called for the establishment of a multilateral mechanism for it.

In the past year, he has invited a number of countries around the world to take part in a multilateral mechanism for the peace process.

Asked about the pope’s comments, an Israeli government official, who requested anonymity, said in a phone call: “Israel has repeatedly expressed its readiness to enter a diplomatic process with the Palestinians without preconditions.”

The last round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which were sponsored by the US, collapsed in May 2014.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem, September 15, 2010. (Kobi Gideon/Flash90)

In late November, Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, said Abbas was willing to meet Netanyahu anywhere in the world.

“I officially challenge Mr. Netanyahu [to meet Abbas]. He can choose any country, any country on Earth. Moscow, Beijing, London, Berlin,” Erekat told the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “He will meet him. This is a challenge, a declared challenge.”

In early December, a PLO official, who requested anonymity, clarified that Erekat had meant to say Abbas was willing to meet Netanyahu anywhere other than Washington, DC.

“We will not participate in a meeting sponsored by the Trump administration,” the official said in a phone call.

Both Abbas and Netanyahu have frequently declared their readiness to meet, but have not held formal talks in several years.

The last known encounter between Abbas and Netanyahu was at the funeral of former prime minister Shimon Peres in September 2016, where the two briefly exchanged pleasantries.

The last time Abbas and Netanyahu met formally for negotiations was in September 2010 in Jerusalem.

Many officials in Trump’s administration have said the US intends to publish a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu has said he will look at the apparently forthcoming peace plan with an “open mind,” while Abbas has vowed not to consider any US proposal.

In the past year, while protesting PA payments to terrorists, security prisoners and their families, and criticizing the operations and criteria of the UN’s Palestinian welfare agency UNRWA, the Trump administration has infuriated the Palestinians by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the US embassy in the Jewish state to Jerusalem, cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians, and closing the PLO representative office in Washington.

Russia on Wednesday accused Israel of endangering two civilian flights during airstrikes near an airport in Syria on Tuesday night, calling it a “provocative act” and a violation of Syrian sovereignty.

According to Syrian state media, the strikes began at about 10 p.m. and were carried out by Israel from Lebanon. It said Syria’s air defenses had opened fire on “enemy targets,” shooting them down.

“We are very concerned by the attacks and how they were made. This is a gross violation of the sovereignty of Syria,” the Russian ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.

The Russian defense ministry said earlier that two non-Russian passenger planes had been landing at the time of the strike — one in Damascus and the other in Beirut. The Syrian military didn’t fully deploy its defense systems as this could risk the safety of the flights, it added.

The defense ministry also said Syria’s air defenses successfully downed 14 of 16 guided missiles fired during the air raid, adding that six Israeli F-16 jets had taken part in the operation.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, speaks at a briefing in Moscow on April 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

“Provocative acts by the Israeli Air Force endangered two passenger jets when six of their F-16s carried out airstrikes on Syria from Lebanese airspace,” ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters, according to Russia Today.

The ministry said three Syrian troops were injured in the raid, confirming a number cited earlier by Syrian TV, which also said that weapons warehouses were hit.

Ties with Moscow took a hit in September when a Russian military plane was downed by Syrian air defenses during an Israeli attack on Latakia, killing all 15 servicemen aboard. Russia blamed the Israeli military for that incident — a charge rejected by Jerusalem — and has supplied Syria with the advanced S-300 air defense system.

The S-300 systems were delivered to Syria last month, but they are not yet believed to be in use, as the Syrian air defense teams still need to be trained to operate them.

Israeli defense officials have met with Russian counterparts a number of times in recent weeks in an effort to re-establish a deconfliction mechanism that will allow Israel to recommence its air campaign.

A Russian military official gives a briefing on the downing of an IL-20 military plane near Syria on September 18, 2018. (screen capture: Sputnik)

Russia reportedly wants significant warning period ahead of any Israeli airstrike, which Israeli officials have been said to refuse.

Newsweek reported Wednesday morning that the alleged Israeli airstrike hit several senior Hezbollah officials as they boarded a plane bound for Iran, citing a US Defense Department source.

The unnamed source told the magazine he had received the information from top Israeli military brass.

He said strategic Iranian munitions were also targeted, including advanced GPS components for weaponry.

However, that report was later denied by Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen, widely regarded as pro-Hezbollah, which said no senior members of the terror group were hurt.

Syrian eyewitnesses and video on social media showed what appeared to be intense fire on targets near the capital.

Hezbollah fighters with their army vehicle Al-Kheil Valley on the Lebanon-Syria border, July 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In addition, Syrian air defenses in Attal and the 68th Brigade and 137th Battalion in Khan-al-Sheikh were also reportedly attacked, Hadashot reported.

Israel said it had deployed air defenses against a missile fired from Syria as Damascus attempted to repel the alleged airstrikes.

The Israel Defense Forces said there was no damage or injuries from the surface-to-air missile fired from Syria at Israel.

“An IDF aerial defense system activated in response to an anti-aircraft missile launched from Syria,” the army said in a statement.

It did not say where or even if the missile was successfully intercepted.

Israel in recent years has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against targets linked to Iran, which alongside its proxies and Russia is fighting on behalf of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israel has accused Iran of seeking to establish a military presence in Syria that could threaten Israeli security and attempting to transfer advanced weaponry to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.