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dpa
Ramallah
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he is waiting to see whether the incoming US administration will keep its promise to move the US~embassy to Jerusalem before making a response.
"If then he decides to move the embassy, we will respond politically and diplomatically, but we hope this will not happen," said Abbas at a news conference on Wednesday with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
"I have talked to Trump in the past, who assured me that he will have a balanced policy and that I should not believe what I hear in the media," said Duda at the event in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Abbas also repeated his warning that moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would"destroy the peace process" and added that the Palestinians are ready to work with him on solving the conflict.
Israel has long considered Jerusalem to be its capital. However, since the Palestinian Authority would like to make East Jerusalem the capital of an eventual state, picking Jerusalem as the site of its embassy would be a clear signal of favouring one side over the other.
To avoid this, most countries, including the US, have set up their embassies in Tel Aviv. Trump, who takes office on Friday, said several times during his campaign that he would prefer a site in Jerusalem. Duda, who arrived in~Israel on Tuesday, where he met officials before travelling to Bethlehem, said he hoped the US~would take a balanced position and play a prominent role in solving the conflict.
