RAMALLAH, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammed on Saturday the Middle East peace plan that the United States intends to declare soon for excluding Jerusalem, the official Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported.
"The Palestinian cause is passing through difficult circumstances, but the Palestinian people and their leadership are on a level of responsibility," said Abbas during his meeting with the new government in Ramallah.
On Saturday evening, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye and 24 ministers were sworn in before Abbas at the Palestinian Authority (PA) headquarters in the West Bank city.
"We have many difficult missions, mainly the Deal of the Century, or the U.S. peace plan, which will be declared soon to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Abbas.
Abbas told Ishtaye and the ministers of the new government that the Palestinians rejected the U.S. plan because it excluded Jerusalem.
"Therefore, we don't want to hear the rest of the plan," he stressed.
Ties between the United States and the PA were severed after U.S. President Donald Trump declared in late 2017 that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the city in 2018.
"There will be lots of developments in the coming days, but we will cooperate together to confront it," Abbas said.
