Palestinians urge US to reconsider Middle East policy after envoy resignation

RAMALLAH Senior Palestinian officials on Sunday urged the US administration to reconsider its strategy towards the PalestinianIsraeli conflict in the wake of the resignation of US Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt.

Member Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and Civil Affairs Minister Hussein Al-Sheikh said in a tweet that “Greenblatt’s resignation requires that the US administration reconsidered its policy towards the Palestinian Israeli conflict after its failure.” Al-Shaikh accused the US of “destroying the peace path and the choice of negotiations by its total bias towards Israel,” urging it to return to international legitimacy resolutions that call for ending the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Greenblatt announced his resignation Friday in a sudden move, after almost three years of working on a US peace plan for the region, also known as the “Deal of the Century.” The US

of administration said that it will announce its Middle East plan after Israeli elections on September 17. Avi Berkowitz was announced to replace Greenblatt. Berkowitz, 30, graduated from Harvard’s law school in 2016, was the assistant of US president Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son in law Jared Kushner.

Member of Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee Bassam Salhi told official Palestinian radio earlier that “the problem does not lie in the persons, but in the US policy in contrast to international references.” Salhi added the “the US administration is in complete harmony with the notions of far right in Israel to resolve the Palestinian cause on the basis of consolidation of facts on the ground and the rejection of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

The Palestinian Authority declared the boycott of the US government after it recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017 and moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in May 2018. The United States has taken several steps against Palestinians, including shutting down the PLO office in Washington and stopping funding for the only UN agency providing support to the Palestinian refugees. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly called for an international multilateral mechanism to oversee the peace process.

(Xinhua)