03 Jan Haley: PA may lose US aid if they don’t return to negotiations
US Ambassador to the UN warns PA refusal to negotiate, attacks on US as a mediator may have consequences.
US Ambassador to the UN warned that the Palestinian Authority risked losing the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid it receives from the United States if it continues to shun peace negotiations.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Ambassador Haley said that: “The president has said that he does not want to give any additional funding until the Palestinians agree to come back to the negotiating table.”
She added that if negotiations do not resume, “the president is not going to continue to fund that situation.”
“The Palestinians now have to show their will that they want to come to the table. As of now they’re not coming to the table but they ask for aid. We’re not giving the aid. We’re going to make sure that they come to the table. And we want to move forward with the peace process,” Haley said.
The ambassador said that US officials “very much still want to have a peace process. Nothing changes with that.”
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced that he would not accept any US peace plan following US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“The United States has proven to be a dishonest mediator in the peace process and we will no longer accept any plan from it,” Abbas said at a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron last month.