The Biden administration is wasting no time reversing some of the Trump maladministration’s misguided foreign policy initiatives in the Middle East.
The Associated Press reported that Acting U.N. Ambassador Richard Mills announced Tuesday that the U.S. was restoring relations with the Palestinians and renewing aid to Palestinian refugees.
Mills made the announcement of Biden’s new approach to a virtual high-level U.N. Security Council meeting, saying the U.S. administration believes this “remains the best way to ensure Israel’s future as a democratic and Jewish state while upholding the Palestinians’ legitimate aspirations for a state of their own and to live with dignity and security.”
pResident Trump had broken with past U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, sharply cutting financial aid for the Palestinians, and reversing course on the illegitimacy of Israeli settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians for a future independent state.
So into the dumpster goes the one-sided “peace plan” announced last year by Trump’s Middle East “envoy,” Jared Kushner. It was immediately rejected by the Palestinians because it turned over key parts of the West Bank to Israel and sided with Israel on such contentious issues as the status of Jerusalem.
Mills emphasized that the Biden administration intended to take a more even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Under the new administration, the policy of the United States will be to support a mutually agreed two-state solution, one in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state,” Mills told the council.
In addition to restoring relations, Mills said the Biden administration intends to restore U.S. funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which the Trump administration had cut off. UNRWA provides assistance to Palestinian refugees and their descendants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
In September 2018, the Trump administration closed the Washington, D.C., office of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which served as the Palestinians’ diplomatic mission to the United States.
Mills said the United States would urge both sides “to avoid unilateral steps that make a two-state solution more difficult.”
He also said the U.S. would “maintain its steadfast support for Israel” and oppose one-sided resolutions in international bodies that unfairly single out Israel.
Mills added that the Biden administration welcomes the recent normalization of relations between Israel and several Arab countries, but said it is “not a substitute for Israeli-Palestinian peace.”
Before Mills spoke, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki sharply criticized the Trump administration’s policies.
“Now is the time to heal and repair the damage left by the previous U.S. administration,” Malki said. “We look forward to the reversal of the unlawful and hostile measures undertaken by the Trump administration and to working together for peace.”
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said that instead of focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the council should focus on Iran, which “does not try to hide its intention of destroying the world’s only Jewish state.”
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