Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Tuesday said the Palestinians would reject all United States-sponsored peace talks until Washington rescinded its December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“The continued American talk about deals to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or calling for negotiations or talks is unacceptable to the Palestinian leadership, as long as Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is not revoked,” Erekat told the official Voice of Palestine radio station, according to the official PA news site Wafa.
When US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he “removed Jerusalem from any negotiations,” said Erekat.
Tensions between the US and Palestinians flared after Trump’s December 6 announcement, with the Palestinian leadership declaring that it would no longer accept Washington as a peace broker.
Following the US president’s declaration, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the US had relinquished its traditional role as the mediator of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. He has also refused to meet with American officials on the peace process.
On Sunday, the PA said it was recalling its envoy to the United States for consultations, in protest of US actions. It later said the ambassador would return.
Trump has said his decision merely recognized the reality that Jerusalem already serves as Israel’s capital and wasn’t meant to prejudge the final borders of the city.
In the days after the decision, Trump administration officials said the strategy was based on the notion that Israel had lost faith in the US as a committed partner during the Obama administration. With trust in Washington restored, Netanyahu’s government would be more inclined going forward to make tough concessions that would ultimately be needed for a peace deal, the US officials argued at the time, and Israeli officials quietly indicated that they could potentially do so.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday praised a “massive movement of the people against the plots of the enemies,” accusing the United States and Israel of inciting anti-government demonstrations.
Pro-government rallies have been held across the country since late December, according to Iranian state media, following several days of opposition protests which sparked violence that left 21 dead.
Such a “popular mobilization against the enemy’s plots targeting the regime… doesn’t exist anywhere (else) in the world,” Khamenei said in a speech broadcast by Iranian media.
He accused the United States and “the Zionists” of spending months preparing demonstrations in small towns in the hope that they would spread to the capital.
“This will not go unanswered,” he said.
“The money came from the rich governments of the Persian Gulf and the perpetrators were the criminal Monafeghin group,” he added.
Monafeghin (“hypocrites” in Persian) is a label Iranian authorities use for the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, an outlawed opposition group.
The anti-government protests had used the slogan “no to high living costs,” which “pleases everyone,” he said.
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