‘No ties normalisation with Israel until Arab Peace Initiative approval’

AMMAN — Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat on Wednesday said there will be no normalisation with Israel by the Arab states until the Arab Peace Initiative (API) is approved by all parties.

Erekat, who is the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) executive committee secretary, made his remarks during the opening session of the 12th Amman Security Colloquium. 

The conference aimed to discuss the Arab stance on international events and the current stalemate in efforts to remove weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East.

“If any Arab state recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel this means these states are cancelling the Ascendance to Heaven,” he said, adding “the Palestinian and Israeli people deserve to live in peace and the only way to do it is through the two-state solution. This will be a win-win for both,” Erekat said, adding that he was “bitter with the recent measure that was adopted by US President Donald Trump that eventually led to recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving its embassy there”.

“The Palestinian leadership and top officials held 37 meetings with the Trump administration and his top aides in 2017 to discuss every possible effort in order to achieve the two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital for Palestine and to live side by side with Israeli,” he continued.

“Unfortunately, several months into the talks with the US top administration officials, they decided to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the embassy, then took several measures such as cutting the aid from vital organisations and entities that helped Palestinians and finally they closed our office in Washington,” Erekat added.

 “The US disqualified itself from any role in the peace process and we suspended our talks with them because they cannot be an honest broker and they cannot be negotiators between Israelis and Palestinians,” the official maintained.

The Palestinian politician added that, when the United States decided to move their embassy to Jerusalem, “I told President Trump that Palestine and Jerusalem are not for sale. I also told him that our conflict is not religious. Judaism will never be a threat to us. Our problem with Israel is political and territorial not religious.” 

Stressing that Islam is a religion of peace and coexistence, he noted “unfortunately, groups such as ISIS [Daesh] and their leaders who are thugs and criminals go to mosques and use God and religion to convince the poor to kill people in return for 70 virgins and palaces,” he concluded.