The Madrid Peace Conference, held in October 1991 which paved the way for the famous Oslo Accord of 1993, is close to complete its third decade and the peace process has failed to yield desired results.
Since then the US has remained main broker for the peace process between Palestinians and Israel. The relation of US with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has kept fluctuating under the impact of different political and security developments in the region, leading to suspension of dialogue in certain cases, but never reached deadlock like the current rapid developments.
The US has informed the Palestinian Authority about its decision to shut down the Palestinian mission in Washington, a step denounced by a Palestinian official who described it as “dangerous escalation”.
“We have been notified by a US official of their decision to close the Palestinian mission to the US,” PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said in a statement.
Erekat termed the move as “collective punishment to the Palestinian people, by cutting financial support for humanitarian services, including health and education.”
The closure comes as the US administration seeks to force the Palestinian leadership to continue their contact, which they have cut with the White House in protest to the US recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December and moving the US embassy to the city in last May.
The US has also been angered by the Palestinian bid to have Israel investigated for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) according to Palestinian officials. “The reason given for the closure was their stepped-up campaign at the ICC” but the officials emphasised that the call for the ICC to open its immediate investigation into Israeli crimes will continue.
This development has come just weeks after the US announced that it decided to cut $251m in economic aid, good governance, healthcare, education and funding for civil society. The Palestinian government had expressed its regrets to the decision taken by the US administration.
In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the closure of the office would increase Israel’s intransigence and encourage it to continue its internationally rejected practices, in addition to widening distance between the US administration and the PLO, thereby hampering international efforts to revive the peace process to reach a comprehensive and just peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis.
This is putting an end to the dialogues between the US and the PLO, which were continuing since the establishment of the Palestine Information Office on May 1, 1978 in Washington, DC, which helped in making the Palestinian President Abbas to become a regular visitor to the White House since 2005.
This undesired move has created a wide rift in the peace process which looks very difficult to heal in the near future.
