Top Palestinian Negotiator: Kushner and Greenblatt Trying to Topple the Palestinian Authority
Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat speaking during a press conference in Egypt.
Jack Khoury writes in Haaretz:
Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s executive committee and a top Palestinian negotiator, blasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, saying Saturday that the pair’s visit to the Middle East is actually an attempt to topple the Palestinian Authority.
Erekat also charged that the envoys’ work visit was also intended to “destroy UNRWA,” the UN relief organization aiding Palestinian refugees.
The Palestinian negotiator claimed that the American delegation’s real intention was to remove the issue of Palestinian refugees from the negotiations table.
Erekat’s words come amid a five-stop trip Kushner and Greenblatt took across the Middle East, throughout which the senior aide and the special peace process envoy carry out meetings with Middle Eastern leaders. The two met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. A White House statement said that they discussed the ways “the humanitarian situation in Gaza can be alleviated, while maintaining Israel’s security” and the administration’s commitment “to advance peace.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also issued a statement concerning the American delegation’s visit to the Middle East. His bureau wrote that “the American delegation has to realize that there’s no point in looking for alternatives and illusions that are meant to divide the Palestinian homeland and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.”