The Palestinian president’s spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh on Thursday rejected statements by the US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, in which he called for replacing President Mahmoud Abbas if he does not return to negotiations with Israel.
Abu Rudeineh described Friedman’s statements as “blatant and unacceptable interference in internal Palestinian affairs.”
“It seems that Friedman speaks on behalf of Israel more than he speaks for the US and appoints himself as an advocate of Israel and the settlers,” he said, adding that Friedman “does not represent the interests of the United States, but a mentality that will only inflame the atmosphere and harm the American people.”
He said that this type of mentality, which serves only the interests of extremists and settlers, is what created the so-called Islamic State, extremism and violence.
Abu Rudeineh urged the American administration to put an end to such behavior.
On Dec. 6, 2017, almost one year after Trump took office, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordered to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.
As a result, the Palestinians have disqualified the US from being the sole sponsor of the peace negotiations, while calling for a multilateral peace mechanism to sponsor the peace talks.
On Feb. 20, Palestinian President Abbas presented a peace initiative in a speech before the UN Security Council, proposing to hold an international peace conference in mid-2018 to jumpstart the final status talks based on the two-state solution and other UN resolutions.