Palestinian presidency says next major political battle will be over Jerusalem

RAMALLAH - The Palestinian president's spokesperson said on Monday that the next major political battle for the Palestinians will be over Jerusalem.

Nabil Abu Rudeinah, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that the issue of Jerusalem represents "a challenge to the Arab world and the international community, "which President Abbas has said is a red line."

It is unacceptable "to bargain on it as part of a state with provisional borders, or through concessions that may endanger Palestinian and Arab national security," the spokesman said in a press statement carried by the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

"Recent Palestinian achievements have proved once again that Israel's policies have failed and are isolated and that the Palestinian cause is just," the statement said, referring to United Nations Security Council resolution 2334, which condemns Israel's settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He called on the international community to "give priority" to confronting the threats that brought instability and chaos to the region.

The spokesman's remarks came after statements by aides to US President-elect Donald Trump that moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a priority.

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel in 1967, as the capital of their future state, while the Israelis insist that all of Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Israel.

On Sunday, France hosted an international conference aimed at restarting peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Peace talks between the two sides have remained stalled since April 2014, when US-sponsored negotiations collapsed after nine months of futile efforts.