Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the new U.S. administration must abide by the commitments made by its predecessors and that "so far, President Trump has not made a decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem." Speaking at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin, Abbas further said that the Arab Spring had been "imported" to the Arab countries and had led to the exploitation of the Palestinian cause by terrorists. Abbas' statements were made on March 23 and aired on the official Palestinian Authority TV channel on April 2.

President Abbas: "When countries make a commitment to something, it is inconceivable for a new administration to not abide by that commitment. Such a thing may happen in jungles, but not in states. In the administrations of Obama, Clinton George W. Bush, or any other administration – when the U.S. government makes a commitment, whoever replaces it must abide by that commitment. Secondly, when President Trump said, during his election campaign, that he would move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, we sent him a friendly message, through unofficial channels, saying that if this happened, it would destroy the peace process. Then we kept quiet. When Mr. Trump entered the White House, he did not mention the moving of the embassy. So we got the message: So far President Trump has not made a decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

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"All of the suffering of the Middle East is due to the so-called 'Arab Spring.' This was imported to the Arab Countries, and is the reason for all the problems that have occurred. When these clashes began, the terrorists came and exploited the Palestinian cause, saying that as long as Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are occupied, we must ignite the entire region.

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"All these conflicts have been fabricated. I have reached an age when I am allowed to say that historically, there was no conflict between Sunnis and Shi'ites, or between Muslims and Christians."