The PLO announced on Saturday that it would resume relations with Washington if the new US administration fulfills its commitments on the Palestinian issue.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said in a statement on Saturday that it would re-establish ties with the United States if US President-elect Joe Biden’s promises on the Palestinian cause were fulfilled, according to ISNA.
The statement came at the end of a meeting in Ramallah chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PA.
“If the new US administration implements what it has previously stated, the Palestinian leaders will establish relations with the United States,” the statement said.
The PLO reiterated Biden’s statements and promises to reopen the PLO office in Washington (which was closed by the State Department in 2018) and to return Palestinian aid in various forms, including support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. “UNRWA” and support for a two-state solution noted.
The statement said Biden’s promises were “contrary to the deal of the century”; US President Donald Trump’s alleged peace plan, which the Palestinians say destroys the horizons for the creation of a Palestinian state.
Last May, Biden pledged during his campaign that if he won, he would find a way to reopen the PLO in Washington and resume its economic and security support for the Palestinians.
He also stressed the need to put pressure on the Zionist regime to prevent unilateral actions that might destroy the two-state solution.
Biden won the November 3 election and is set to take office on January 20.
US-Palestinian relations deteriorated after Trump’s decision in 2017 to recognize the occupied city of Jerusalem as the “capital of Israel,” and the following year Washington cut off aid to UNRWA and then the “deal of the century.” Declared earlier this year and did not consider Israeli settlements illegal.
The statement from the PLO Executive Committee stressed that the Palestinian leadership would work with the international community to revive the Middle East peace process in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions through an international conference.
Last September, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to take practical steps to convene an international peace conference in early 2021.
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