Twitter: White House’s only mode to speak with Palestinians

washington — The United States and the Palestinian Authority are not officially on talking terms, but President Donald Trump’s administration has found a way to communicate nonetheless — Twitter.

Jason Greenblatt, the Twitterloving US leader’s special representative for international negotiations, has taken to social media over several days in an indirect, if also plainly visible, dialogue with the Palestinian leadership.

Greenblatt and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, have been handed the herculean task of coming up with a plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians after decades of failed initiatives.

The pair has been discreet, managing against the odds to avoid leaks of upcoming proposals. But their task is complicated as Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas cut off talks with the administration in 2017 after Trump took the landmark decision of recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In his latest tweets, Greenblatt responded to Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh who warned that no peace was possible without the Palestinian people’s assent.

“Well, Mr. Nabil, we agree on something — there is no peace without an agreement. We are working hard on that. You’re doing nothing,” Greenblatt tweeted.

“You can’t claim to want peace and also try to sabotage the potential for an agreement. It can’t go both ways,” he wrote. Greenblatt in recent days has also gone on Twitter

to reply to Palestinian Liberation Organisation secretary general Saeb Erekat and fellow senior figure Hanan Ashrawi on issues ranging from Israeli settlements to US assistance to the status of Jerusalem. “Who says the US and the PA aren’t talking? The only difference now is that we are speaking about

these matters in public via twitter so the public can understand everyone’s positions. Transparency is better for all,” he tweeted.

The strategy is similar to that of the US president, who has embraced Twitter as a way to speak without the filter of critical media or cautious aides. —

AFP A Palestinian inspects his farm by the scene of an Israeli strike on a Hamas position in Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said it had directed tank fire at the position in response to a projectile fired from the Palestinian enclave into Israel. —