Palestinian envoy to DC slams ‘backstabbing’ Trump administration

The Palestinian Ambassador to Washington, Husam Zomlot, slammed what he described as the “backstabbing” Trump administration, in remarks reported by Haaretz on Thursday.

Zomlot, speaking at the Middle East Institute, accused the White House of “reneging their own promises” on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Referring to Trump’s statement about “taking Jerusalem off the table”, Zomlot responded: “You didn’t take Jerusalem off the table – you took away the whole table. No Palestinian will sit at it”.

The former advisor to Mahmoud Abbas added that without a way to achieve a two-state solution, there will be “a movement toward a one-state arrangement with equal rights for everyone”.

Zomlot claimed that in the early months of the Trump presidency, the relationship was “very promising”, and that, “despite all our concerns”, the Palestinian leadership “saw this administration as an opportunity”.

Read: Abbas accepts return of US to broker peace process

But Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem in December, Zomlot said, “was the good-bye kiss” to the peace process, and an act of “backstabbing”.

You say you don’t want to dictate, you don’t want to tell the sides what to do, and then you come and decide to take the core, the ‘mother of all issues’, and act unilaterally?

he said.

Zomlot also clarified that the Trump administration has not yet presented the Palestinians with a peace plan. “There wasn’t anything substantial,” he said.