Europe emerging as new sponsor of Mideast peace
The European Union reassured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about European support for a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, but will the United States and Israel allow other parties to be involved in the Middle East peace process?
While US Vice President Mike Pence was concluding an unsuccessful visit to the Middle East, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was making headway in Europe. The Palestinians, who say that they have ended America’s sole sponsorship of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, are looking to Europe to play a more active role. Abbas has been urging Europe to recognize Palestine on the 1967 borders and to agree to East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Ashraf Khatib, communications adviser to the Negotiations Affairs Department of the PLO, told Al-Monitor that the Palestinian position vis-a-vis the Americans is very clear. “The United States has disqualified itself from having a mediating role in the political process. The US decision or project to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has proved the US [has adopted] the Israeli narrative that gives exclusivity to one nation over another,” he said.
A PLO source speaking on condition of anonymity said the Palestinians have said no to negotiations with the United States and Israelis only, “but we haven’t said no to the possibility of having a multilateral setting with more countries, not only the US.”