PA prime minister meets US senators, urges Americans to support 2-state solution

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has met with US Senators Mitt Romney and Chris Murphy, and told them that the recent measures the Trump administration has undertaken, which affect the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be “worse” than the text of any US peace plan, the official PA news site Wafa reports.

Shtayyeh made the remark in response to questions posed by the senators about why the Palestinians have announced a position on the expected US peace plan before they have seen it, the Wafa report states.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas has stated on a number of occasions that the Palestinians will reject the anticipated American proposal. Some Palestinian officials, however, have recently said they will read over the expected plan before taking a position on it.

The PA prime minister also told the senators that the Palestinians will not “engage in any political process that does not meet the minimum of Palestinian rights, which includes an independent and sovereign Palestinian state along 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital and a just resolution to the refugees issue,” the Wafa report adds.

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The meeting between Shtayyeh and the American lawmakers took place at the former’s office in Ramallah.

Shtayyeh also affirmed to the senators the “importance of American voices coming out in support of the two-state solution in accordance with international decisions and signed agreements at a time when the American administration is acting in a clearly biased manner in favor of Israel,” the Wafa report also says.
In addition to Ramallah, Romney and Murphy are scheduled to visit Israel and Jordan this week.

Shtayyeh also told them that he calls on the US Congress to vote to recognize the state of Palestine, similar to some European parliaments, the Wafa report adds.

— Adam Rasgon