PA: We want US to be ‘honest mediator for peace’

Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said yesterday that the Palestinians want the US to be an “honest partner and mediator of peace”.

During a meeting with the US Senator Ron Wyden in Ramallah, Shtayyeh said: “The stalemate of the peace process must not be faced with sanctions or extortion by the US administration. We want it [US] to be an honest partner and mediator of peace.”

He also asked Wyden to pass a message to US Congress that America should follow the footsteps of many EU countries and recognise the State of Palestine and lift the sanctions on the PLO.

READ: ‘Deal of the century to be born dead’, says PA PM|

The new prime minister renewed the PA’s refusal of the long-awaited US peace plan which is known as the “deal of the century”.

“We will not accept the retention of the status quo,” Shtayyeh said, noting that the latest US measures were taken against the Palestinians, including the halt of aid offered to UNRWA or relocating the embassy to Jerusalem “are more dangerous than any written text”.

“Annexing the West Bank under the so-called settlement blocks undermines the two-state solution and gets rid of any chance of creating an independent state on the 1967 borders.”