Palestine is ready to resume peace talks with Israel under US mediation after Joe Biden is in the White House, but only from where they were halted under former US President Barack Obama in 2016, Palestinian Ambassador to France Salman Herfi told Sputnik on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2020) Palestine is ready to resume peace talks with Israel under US mediation after Joe Biden is in the White House, but only from where they were halted under former US President Barack Obama in 2016, Palestinian Ambassador to France Salman Herfi told Sputnik on Monday.
Biden was declared winner by US media this past weekend after a very tight race, but the election is likely far from over, with votes still being counted and Donald Trump complaining of fraud and vowing to take the case to court. If Biden eventually takes the White House, some expect him to reverse a number of pro-Israel moves with regard to Middle East settlement made by Washington in the Trump years.
"[Palestinian] President [Mahmoud] Abbas made it clear saying that we are ready to resume cooperation and political contacts if the upcoming administration cancels all moves by {Donald] Trump which are against the Palestinian people and aimed at destroying peace in the Middle East. If they are ready we will welcome these steps and we are going to resume negotiations from the point reached in 2016," Herfi stated.
The ambassador recalled that the Palestinian authorities have cut all ties with Washington since US President Donald Trump's 2017 decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, his decision to cut aid to Palestinian organizations and the proposal of the "deal of the century" peace plan that was rejected by Palestine.
In December of 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which meant that the US formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel's undivided capital. The new embassy opened half a year later, with Israel hoping that it would prompt a mass relocation of embassies to the previously tabooed city, especially on the part of the European Union.
In late January, Trump presented his so-called deal of the century to reconcile Israel and Palestine. The deal calls for the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state, with Israel retaining control over the West Bank and keeping Jerusalem as its undivided capital. Palestine has firmly rejected the plan.
