State Department orders closure of Palestinian de facto embassy
Says PLO hasn’t taken positive steps toward peace deal
WASHINGTON – In the latest effort to pressure the Palestinians into longstalled peace talks, the Trump administration announced Monday that it has ordered the closure of the office that serves as the Palestinian leadership’s de facto embassy in Washington.
The move comes days after the administration said it would cut off more than $300 million in funding for the United Nations agency that provides humanitarian assistance to more than 5 million Palestinians who have scattered across the Middle East since the creation of Israel.
The State Department blamed Palestinian leaders and their diplomats in Washington for the growing tensions, which have left the White House with nothing to show for months of diplomacy with Israel and the Gulf Arab states in an effort to forge what President Donald Trump once called the “ultimate deal.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization “has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel” and should close its office in Washington, Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, President Donald Trump during a visit to the Western Wall May 22, 2017, in Jerusalem.
said in a statement.
“To the contrary, PLO leadership has condemned a U.S. peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise,” she added.
Nauert said closing the PLO office does not mean the Trump administration is “retreating” from efforts to establish “a lasting and comprehensive peace plan.” The effort has been led by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, and Jason Greenblatt, a former executive vice president at the Trump Organization.
Palestinian leaders have refused to
meet with U.S. envoys since Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last December and moved the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The impasse has created growing frustration in the White House.
Palestinians claim part of the holy city as their capital of an eventual independent nation.
National security adviser John Bolton used a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative Washington think tank, to threaten to take action if the International Criminal Court attempts to act against the U.S. or Israel.