Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has called on President Joe Biden to revoke the US designation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as a “terrorist organization” and instead recognize it as a “partner organization for peace.”
“We are in touch with the Biden administration, and although what we heard during the election campaign is important, it should be translated on the ground and the consulate in east Jerusalem and the PLO office in Washington should be reopened and aid to UNRWA should be renewed,” said Shtayyeh at the 13th Arafat conference on Sunday.
It is important that Biden issues a decree declaring that the PLO is a partner for peace, he stressed.
Shtayyeh is calling for a reversal of the 1987 decision of the US Congress that designated the PLO as a terrorist organization.
After the signing of the Oslo Accords, US presidents signed every six months on the suspension of a Congress decision allowing the opening of a PLO representative office in Washington.
However, former US President Donald Trump halted the signing of suspension decisions in 2018.
This led to shutting down the office in Washington.
Ties were severed between the PLO and the former US administration before they were resumed through Palestinian officials and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Palestinian-Israeli file in the US State Department, Hady Amr.
Recent contact between the PA and the US administration resulted from former indirect communications through mediators. This presented some relief in Ramallah.
The Palestinian Authority relies on the new US administration to reform ties and push the peace process in the region.
