Erekat to Asharq Al-Awsat: Trump Is Telling The world 'What Was Taken by Force Can Be Kept By Force'

 Palestinian chief negotiator and Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, speaks during a press conference in the West Bank city of Jericho on February 15, 2017. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
Palestinian chief negotiator and Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, speaks during a press conference in the West Bank city of Jericho on February 15, 2017. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
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Erekat to Asharq Al-Awsat: Trump Is Telling The world 'What Was Taken by Force Can Be Kept By Force'

 Palestinian chief negotiator and Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, speaks during a press conference in the West Bank city of Jericho on February 15, 2017. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
Palestinian chief negotiator and Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, speaks during a press conference in the West Bank city of Jericho on February 15, 2017. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

Secretary General of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's (PLO) Executive Committee Saeb Erekat asserted on Saturday that decisions of the current US administration undermine Palestinian-related resolutions adopted since the end of World War II.

“There is no economic development in the absence of security, stability and peace. Those looking for peace and security have no choice but to end the Israeli invasion, to achieve the independence of the Palestinian States with east Jerusalem as its capital, and to solve the issues of refugees and the release of prisoners and detainees,” Erekat told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The PLO spokesperson was speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, which kicked off in Jordan on Saturday in the presence of more than 1,000 participants from more than 50 countries.

Commenting on the policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration, Erekat considered that they undermine what institutions and international resolutions had established since 1945, through decisions taken by the United Nations, Security Council, General Assembly, UN Charter, Human Rights Council and the four Geneva Conventions of 1949.

“Through his policies, Trump says that what was taken by force can be kept by force,” Erekat said.

He explained that such policies lead to one question: “What happens after ISIS?”

Erekat also said that Trump’s decisions concerning the region and its people might lead to violence, chaos and extremism.

On Saturday, the WEF witnessed a dispute between Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi and Oman’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah over the issue “of assurances that Israel needs.”

Bin Abdullah said that Israel needs assurances about its future, and that Arabs need to remove all of Israel’s concerns and fears.

However, Safadi responded by saying that Arabs are committed to the peace deal that recognizes Israel. “What more assurances do the Israelis need? The problem is not with lack of assurances, the problem is with the continued Israeli occupation,” he noted.



Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Former head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks on Sunday with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose group led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations between their countries.

Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former President Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father decades ago. He is the most prominent Lebanese politician to visit Syria since the Assad family's 54-year rule came to an end.

“We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years,” said Jumblatt.

He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

Jumblatt's father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war. The younger Jumblatt was a critic of the Assads, though he briefly allied with them at one point to gain influence in Lebanon's ever-shifting political alignments.

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he said, pledging that it would respect Lebanese sovereignty.

Al-Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating the assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the massive Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, which killed Hariri and 21 others.

“We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.