U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced Tuesday the reopening of the American Consulate General in Jerusalem — a move that restores ties with the Palestinians that had been downgraded by the Trump administration.
The consulate long served as an autonomous office in charge of diplomatic relations with the Palestinians. But former U.S. President Donald Trump downgraded its operations and placed them under the authority of his ambassador to Israel when he moved the embassy to Jerusalem. The move infuriated the Palestinians, who view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hold a joint press conference, in the West Bank city of Ramallah
(Photo: Reuters)
Blinken did not give a precise date for reopening the consulate.
He announced the step Tuesday after a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The U.S. is trying to bolster Abbas in his rivalry with Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror group and on the international stage.
“As I told the president, I’m here to underscore the commitment of the United States to rebuilding the relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, a relationship built on mutual respect and also a shared conviction that Palestinians and Israelis alike deserve equal measures of security, freedom opportunity and dignity,” he said.
Speaking alongside Blinken, Abbas thanked the U.S. "for its commitment to the two-state solution (and maintaining) the status quo on the Haram al-Sharif," a Jerusalem compound holy to Muslims and Jews that contains Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site.
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Motorists and pedestrians move past a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike during the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip
(Photo: AP)
Abbas also thanked Blinken for what he called American support "for the preservation of (Palestinian) residents of ... Sheikh Jarrah," an East Jerusalem neighborhood where the potential evictions of Palestinian families helped spark the Israel-Gaza fighting.
The top U.S. diplomat also said that the Biden administration will ask the U.S. Congress for $75 million in development and economic assistance for Palestinians along with providing $5.5 million in immediate disaster assistance for Gaza and $32 million to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Blinken was in the region to help shore up the ceasefire last week that ended a devastating war 11-day war between Israel and Hamas. He promised to “rally international support” to aid Gaza after the war while keeping any assistance out of the hands of Hamas.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken hold a joint press conference in Jerusalem
(Photo: AP)
“We know that to prevent a return to violence, we have to use the space created to address a larger set of underlying issues and challenges. And that begins with tackling the grave humanitarian situation in Gaza and starting to rebuild,” he said.
Blinken will not be meeting with Hamas, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and which Israel and the U.S. consider a terrorist organization.
Blinken addressed the larger conflict, saying “we believe that Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely, to enjoy equal measures of freedom, opportunity and democracy, to be treated with dignity.”