Joe Biden, former U.S Vice President and 2020 Presidential candidate who has been announced President-elect, earlier while campaigning, says his Administration Plans to Reverse US Policies Undermining a Two-State Solution, Reopen East Jerusalem Consulate to engage Palestinian Authority PA.
President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, when he announced plans to move the embassy there. In May 2018, his administration opened the new facility — a decision that was met with intense controversy, both in Washington and in the Middle East.
Following the move the Palestinians cut ties with Washington, calling the Trump administration biased toward Israel.
Yet rather than reversing Trump, Biden told donors he’d reopen a US consulate in East Jerusalem to engage Palestinian leaders in talks about a “two-state solution” that had long been the official US posture toward Israel and the Palestinians.
Biden, while speaking during a virtual fundraiser before election, suggested relocating the embassy again would not help the stagnant peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Congress authorized the embassy move to Jerusalem in 1995 – with Biden voting for the measure as a Delaware senator – but a succession of presidents from both major parties delayed the shift, setting conditions as part of ongoing peace negotiations.
“Moving the embassy when we did without the conditions having been met was short-sighted and frivolous,” the former vice president said. “It should have happened in the context of a larger deal to help us achieve important concessions for peace in the process.”
His comments confirm the position set out by a top foreign policy adviser, who also said Biden opposes unilateral annexation of parts of the West Bank, a move Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to implement.
Abbas To Ask Biden To Move US Embassy To Tel Aviv
The reports cited a Palestinian Authority senior adviser named Nabil Shaath, who told the Hebrew-language newspaper that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been covertly communicating with the president-elect in an effort to go back on many of President Donald Trump’s pro-Israel policies, such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the embassy back to Tel Aviv.
Democratic Party candidate for vice president Kamala Harris indicated earlier in an interview via email with The Arab American News that under a Joe Biden administration, the United States will renew its ties with the Palestinians, and oppose Israeli unilateral actions that undermine a two-state solution.
Harris also said that a Biden administration will take immediate steps to restore economic and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians, attempt to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and reopen the US consulate in east Jerusalem, in addition to working to reopen the PLO mission in Washington.
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