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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed his dissatisfaction with the sequence of steps the Biden administration is planning to introduce in an effort to enhance ties with Ramallah, deeming the measures inadequate as long as the US consulate in Jerusalem stays shuttered, two US and Palestinian officers informed The Occasions of Israel on Monday.
The US deliberate to announce that Hady Amr, deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, could be elevated to the position of particular envoy to the Palestinians earlier than US President Joe Biden’s journey to Israel and the West Financial institution in late June, the 2 officers mentioned final month. On Friday, the White Home determined to delay the journey till July.
Days earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shared the administration’s plan in a cellphone name with Abbas. As a part of Amr’s new portfolio, he would go to the area usually and work intently with the Palestinian Affairs Unit (PAU), which at present is a department throughout the US Embassy to Israel and is housed on the outdated consulate constructing in Jerusalem.
In one other transfer aimed without delay once more distinguishing between the diplomats serving the Palestinians and people serving the Israelis, the administration plans to have the PAU formally begin reporting on to Amr in Washington, reasonably than to the American ambassador in Israel, in accordance with the US and Palestinian officers.
Abbas didn’t reply properly to the proposals and requested Blinken to carry off on asserting them, in accordance with the Palestinian and US officers.
“We count on the administration to uphold its commitments,” a Palestinian official mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity. “These proposals are band-aid options and do nothing to deal with Israeli crimes.”
The US Consulate Normal constructing in Jerusalem, March 4, 2019. (Ariel Schalit/AP)
Ties between Israel and the PA — which noticed preliminary indicators of enchancment after the swearing-in of the brand new unity authorities final June — have step by step deteriorated. They hit a notable low in latest weeks with clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police on the Temple Mount, the deadly capturing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the Might 29 Jerusalem Day Flag March the place vital parts of the roughly 70,000 religious-nationalist contributors had been filmed chanting racist slogans and harassing Palestinian onlookers within the Outdated Metropolis.
The US has not given up on the measures to strengthen ties with the Palestinians and can talk about the difficulty additional with the PA when an advance staff for Biden’s journey visits Ramallah on the finish of the week, an American official mentioned.
The official additionally dismissed the notion that the strikes had been meant to be in lieu of reopening the consulate in Jerusalem, which traditionally served because the de facto mission to the Palestinians earlier than it was shuttered by former US president Donald Trump in 2019.
Reopening the consulate stays the administration’s aim and the proposed steps are a part of the method towards doing so, the US official mentioned. Nevertheless, that rationalization doesn’t appear to persuade the Palestinians, who’ve heard concerning the plan because the 2020 presidential marketing campaign.
US Vice President Joe Biden (proper) shakes fingers with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas throughout a gathering within the West Financial institution metropolis of Ramallah, March 9, 2016. (AFP/Abbas Momani)
“We can’t settle for strikes as an alternative of reopening the consulate,” the Palestinian official mentioned. “Jerusalem is our capital.”
In Might of final yr, Blinken notified Abbas that the US was starting the method of bringing again the mission. However the US instantly confronted pushback from Israel, which argues that reestablishing a consulate serving the Palestinians inside Israeli territory would encroach on its sovereignty. Supporters of the transfer say it could merely restore the standing the mission held for many years and observe that roughly a dozen different international locations have comparable places of work serving the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
The US might transfer forward with reopening the consulate, daring Israel to refuse accrediting a consul common from an ally that grants it $3.8 billion in protection assist, however Biden has been intent on avoiding such public spats with Jerusalem and the transfer might additionally immediate sturdy home criticism. Because of this, the matter has stalled for over a yr, enraging Palestinian officers.
Requested for remark, a State Division spokesperson informed The Occasions of Israel, “we’ve got nothing to announce,” whereas the PA president’s workplace didn’t reply to a question on the matter.
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