Palestinians ‘freeze’ meetings with US over office row

RAMALLAH: Palestinian officials announced Tuesday they had suspended meetings with the US following a quarrel with President Donald Trump’s administration over the future of their representative office in Washington.
The announcement came on the same day the leading Palestinian political factions began talks in Cairo aimed at pushing ahead with reconciliation efforts. It was not immediately clear if the row with Washington would impact on the reconciliation talks and the suspension of meetings was not confirmed by the Americans.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki and other officials said they had suspended all meetings, but speaking during a visit to Spain, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he remained committed to working with Trump and America to achieve a lasting peace deal.
Trump has been seeking to build confidence between the sides ahead of a fresh attempt at peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.His envoys, including senior adviser Jared Kushner and peace negotiators Jason Greenblatt, have held dozens of meetings with Palestinians in the past year, but these could now be in jeopardy. Vice President Mike Pence is also due to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories next month. Malki said that by deciding to close the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington, the Americans had effectively cut off ties.
“What is the use of holding any meetings with them when they close our office?” he told AFP. “In practice by closing the office they are freezing all meetings and we are making that official.” The PLO, which the international community sees as representing all Palestinians, must have its permission to operate premises in the US capital renewed by the State Department every six months. But last week the department refused to renew the permit. US officials cited comments by Abbas about possibly taking Israel to the International Criminal Court as justification. A PLO spokesman confirmed they had received instructions from Abbas “regarding closing down all communication lines with the Americans”.
The row comes as Trump seeks bargaining chips in his bid to broker an elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. The US president has a 90-day window to avert the closure of the office if he deems progress has been made. Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said he was “concerned” about the plans to shutter the office.