Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas called on the fresh president-elect
Joe Biden on Sunday to ‘enhance’ relationship between the two countries, which
witnessed major damage during President Trump’s term in White House, reported AFP.

Congratulating Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris,
Abbas stated that he wished “to enhance the Palestinian-American relations and
achieve freedom, independence, justice and dignity for our people,” AFP quoted him as saying.

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Heading the Ramallah-based Palestinian administration that
has had strife with the US and especially the Trump administration, Abbas in recent
years has had intense disagreements and even broke ties with the 45th
President of the United States and his office.

Trump, on his part, cut the funding to the United Nations
agency looking after Palestinian refugees (UNWRA).

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Additionally, Trump denied any chance of east-Jerusalem
being turned into as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and going
against the decade-old US stance that settlement expansion was an obstacle to
peace, did not risk criticizing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

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In January, Trump unveiled his Middle East Plan without
taking any inputs from the Palestinian side.

In February 2020, Abbas rejected Trump’s Middle East plan,
saying that it would leave Palestinians with a state resembling “Swiss cheese”.