Palestinian president wants U.S. sidelined
Abbas asks UN to step in as Trump faces Mideast backlash over Jerusalem
ISTANBUL— Breaking with years of courting the United States, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for the United Nations to replace Washington as a Mideast mediator and suggested he might not co-operate with the Trump administration’s much-anticipated effort to hammer out an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
At a summit in Turkey, Arab and Muslim leaders “rejected and condemned” U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — the trigger for Abbas’ sharp policy pivot — but stopped short of backing his more combative approach toward Washington.
Apossible Palestinian refusal to engage with the U.S. — and growing backlash against Trump’s shift on Jerusalem, including from Arab allies — cast new doubt over the administration’s already seemingly remote chances of brokering a deal and succeeding where its predecessors have failed.
A senior White House official said the administration will continue to work on a Mideast plan “that we hope will offer the best outcome for both peoples” and will present it when the time is right.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of an expected public statement later Wednesday.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Wednesday the administration would continue to work on a Mideast plan that it believes will benefit Israelis and Palestinians.
Referring to Abbas, she said that the “type of rhetoric that we heard has prevented peace in the past, and it’s not necessarily surprising that those types of things would be said.”
In shunning the U.S., Abbas finds himself in uncharted territory.
He does not have an immediate practical alternative to more than two decades of U.S.-led negotiations on the terms of Palestinian statehood.
On the other hand, Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was decried by Palestinians and others in the region as a provocative show of pro-Israel bias, making it difficult for Abbas to justify dealing with Washington as a mediator.
Abbas said the U.S. has disqualified itself as a mediator.
“We will no longer accept that it has a role in the political process,” Abbas said.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to criticize Abbas’ comments, though he didn’t refer directly to the Palestinian leader.
Netanyahu said Wednesday that Palestinians should “work for peace and not for extremism.”
“All of these declarations do not impress us,” Netanyahu said.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it to its capital, a move not recognized by most of the international community.
Over the past 50 years, Israel has cemented its control over the eastern sector, building large settlements there that are now home to more than 200,000 Israelis.