Palestine Condemns U.S. Decision to Merge al-Quds Embassy, Consulate General

Date: 19 October 2018 - 21:11

News ID: ۵۸۶۵۷

GAZA (Dispatches) – Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat has slammed the United States for merging its Embassy and Consulate General in al-Quds into one diplomatic mission, adding that Washington's moves went apart with its pledges to facilitate the crisis settlement.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Washington would combine the embassy and the consulate general in al-Quds into one diplomatic mission "in order to boost its efficiency”.
"The decision of the United States to end the consulate’s existence… has nothing to do with efficiency, but a lot with the desire to please the ideologized American team, which is primed to dismantle the foundations of the international system and U.S. foreign policy in order to reward Israel for its violations and crimes," Erekat said in a statement.
Palestine thinks that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump does not seek to resolve a long-standing Palestinian-Zionist conflict despite respective pledges, according to the official.
"Trump’s administration is a part of the problem, not a solution," Ekerat stressed.
Until the merger, U.S. relations with the Palestinian Authority have been conducted through the Consulate General in al-Quds, making the mission a de facto embassy for Palestine, which the United States has not yet officially recognized as a state.
The U.S. state secretary said the United States would continue to do full range of reporting, outreach and programming both in the West Bank, Gaza and with Palestinians in al-Quds via a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the al-Quds Embassy, which is overseen by the U.S. ambassador to the occupied territories.
In May, the United States relocated its embassy in the occupied territories from Tel Aviv to al-Quds. The U.S. move provoked outrage among the Palestinians and the Muslim world as a whole. The Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the PA no longer accepts the United States' role as a mediator in its so-called peace process with the Zionist regime.

A general view of the Dome of the Rock and al-Quds' Old City on December 4, 2017