Abbas confidant tears into US for refusing to delist PLO in meeting with senior Biden aide

Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh slams the United States’ continuing categorization of the Palestine Liberation Organization as a terror group during a meeting with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr in Ramallah.

Removing the PLO terror tag has been a key demand by Ramallah to current US President Joe Biden. Thus far, it remains unfulfilled.

Al-Sheikh also criticized Israeli policies that he said were destroying the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state.

“[We] stressed that the absence of a political horizon and Israel’s continuation of its unilateral measures are killing the possibility of a two-state solution,” Sheikh says in a statement.

Amr’s meeting comes in advance of a planned visit by Biden to the region in July. The date was set for mid-June but was later delayed to the following month.

The two officials also discussed some matters to “prepare for the visit” of US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf in the coming days, Sheikh tweets.