PA: We’ll talk if US uses accepted rhetoric

The Palestinians are prepared to resume contacts with the US administration if it declares its commitment to the “references” of the peace process, Palestinian Authority presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said on Thursday.

Abu Rudaineh’s statement came in response to recent remarks by US administration officials criticizing Palestinian leaders for the continued stalemate in the peace process.

“The PLO affirms that it has never rejected any negotiations or initiatives to achieve peace based in the

two-state solution,” Abu Rudaineh said. Such a solution, he said, must be based on the “borders of June 4, 1967, and within the framework of international legitimacy resolutions and the [2002] Arab Peace Initiative, which considers East Jerusalem an occupied territory.”

The PLO, the spokesman added, “is fully prepared to resume relations and contacts with the US administration if it declares its commitment to these references.”

However, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday evening that the Palestinians will not deal with the US administration unless it backtracks on a series of decisions it took since December 2017.

Abbas, who was speaking during a meeting of Fatah leaders in Ramallah, also demanded that the US administration implement international resolutions pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict.

“The American side is no longer an honest broker on whom we can rely on after all its decisions, including recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and halting US financial aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees [UNRWA],” Abbas said.

Abbas again rejected US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East, also known as the “Deal of the Century,” which Abbas said “has ended and will fail like the Manama workshop,” referring to the recent US-led “Peace to Prosperity” economic conference in Bahrain.

Abbas also reiterated his commitment to the families of Palestinian security prisoners and “martyrs” in the aftermath of Israel’s decision to cut their allowances from tax and tariff revenues it collects on behalf of the PA. “Harming the martyrs, prisoners and the wounded is a red line which we won’t accept regardless of the challenges imposed on us,” Abbas said. “We want all the money of the Palestinian people without one penny missing.”

Accusing Israel of “violating” agreements signed with the Palestinians, Abbas claimed that Israel was systematically working to destroy the Oslo Accord. •