According to recent claims by the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leadership will not meet with any U.S. officials regarding the peace process at any point in the future. The claims were made in response to the recent recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by US President Donald Trump.

In a special interview conducted by the Times of Israel, Abbas told reporters that the Palestinian leadership canceled meetings with top peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s Senior Adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“No one from the American administration will be met to discuss peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis because the [PA] president was very clear on that,” said Majdi al-Khalidi at the Organization of Islamic Countries on Wednesday in Istanbul.

Khalidi went one step further and said that “Greenblatt knows that no meeting will happen, even if he asks.”

In Turkey, Abbas said that Trump’s decision signifies that: “the United States has chosen to lose its eligibility as an intermediary. It does not have any role in the political process.” The Palestinians went so far to even cancel a meeting with the U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

It is important to note that the U.S. has been the key mediator between the two sides since the early 1990s.

Instead, Abbas said that he would seek a multilateral international process that would eventually resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This process would be run by the U.N.

“As we have said since the Jerusalem announcement, we anticipated reactions like the ones going on in the region but are going to remain hard at work on our peace plan,” a senior U.S. administration told The Times of Israel.

“We think Mr. Trump has acted in a way that makes it impossible for the United States to act as an honest broker. We are just expressing that,” Shaath said.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)