Palestinians have no option but to suspend recognition of Israel: PLO official

Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-06 20:20:18|Editor: Chengcheng
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RAMALLAH, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said Tuesday that the Palestinians have no option but to suspend the recognition of Israel, in response to the U.S. policy.

U.S. President Donald Trump "wanted to isolate Jerusalem but he isolated the U.S.," PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat said in a brief statement in response to Trump's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on Monday.

Trump hinted that he may visit Jerusalem again in May to attend the opening ceremony of the U.S. embassy in Israel.

Trump has infuriated the Palestinians by announcing in last December to recognize the disputed holy city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, breaking away from the decades-old U.S. policy.

The Palestinians "have no option but to implement the resolutions of the Palestinian Central Council to suspend the recognition of Israel until it recognizes the state of Palestine," Erekat warned.

During a meeting in January, the PLO Central Council decided to suspend the Oslo accords with Israel, while assigning the PLO Executive Committee to revoke the recognition of Israel until it recognizes the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders and reverses the decision to annex East Jerusalem.

Tump told reporters on Monday before meeting with Netanyahu in the White House that if the Palestinians don't return to the table of negotiations, "they don't have peace and that's a possibility also."

He declined to disclose when his new peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian talks would be announced.

The U.S.-sponsored negotiations between Palestine and Israel have been stalled since 2014.

On Dec. 6, 2017, almost one year after Trump took office, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and ordered to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

As a result, the Palestinians have disqualified the U.S. from being the sole sponsor of the peace negotiations, while calling for a multilateral peace mechanism to sponsor the peace talks.

On Feb. 20, Palestinian President Abbas presented a peace initiative in a speech before the UN Security Council, proposing to hold an international peace conference in mid-2018 to jumpstart the final status talks based on the two-state solution and other UN resolutions.

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