PA slams Trump’s ‘Zionist’ policies in Middle East

“There’s no limit to the US officials’ attempt to play the world for fools,” the PA said in a statement issued by its Foreign Affairs Ministry in Ramallah.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks at a meeting in Ramallah on March 19, 2018 (photo credit: PPO)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks at a meeting in Ramallah on March 19, 2018
(photo credit: PPO)
The Palestinian Authority on Saturday again launched a scathing attack on the US administration, and said its policies toward the Middle East were “Zionist par excellence.”
The US administration, it claimed, was not serious about peace and negotiations.
“There’s no limit to the US officials’ attempt to play the world for fools,” the PA said in a statement issued by its Foreign Affairs Ministry in Ramallah.
The latest attack came in response to remarks by US State Department spokeswoman Heather Ann Nauert to the Palestinian daily Al-Quds.
Last Thursday, the paper’s Washington correspondent quoted Nauert as saying that the two-state solution requires direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. She said that the two sides don’t need a mediator to conduct direct negotiations. The US administration, she added, has a team that is working to bring the two sides together.
The PA accused the US spokeswoman of “covering up” for the American position, which is “completely biased in favor of the occupation and its policies,” by employing “glazed, recycled and unserious rhetoric about peace and negotiations.”
The PA statement accused US senior officials of President Donald Trump’s administration, including Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt and Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, of “blindly endorsing” the policies of Israel and attempting to mislead international public opinion and world leaders by heaping praise on Israel and its capabilities and relations.
The statement referred to Friedman as “the settler.”‭‮