U.S. Officials’ Mideast Tours Aim To Use Arab Division To Boost Israeli Role: Palestinian Official

Hanan Ashrawi

RAMALLAH, Aug 25 (NNN-WAFA) – A senior Palestinian official, said that, the visits of U.S. officials to the Middle East, aim at using the Arab division to boost the role of Israel in the region.

The United States and Israel are trying to “implement their plans and deals at this particular time, to re-position Israel in the region as a major player and consolidate the dangerous polarisation in the region,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee, in an emailed press statement.

Her remarks came, in response to the visits of U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and U.S. President, Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to Israel and several Arab countries, including the Gulf states, to discuss the normalisation between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

“The United States and Israel are working on exploiting the fragmented Arab reality, to offer Israel free gains by splitting and weakening the Arab and Islamic ranks,” Ashrawi said.

Palestine severed its ties with the Trump administration, after he recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in late 2017, and moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

Palestine has also rejected Trump’s Middle East peace plan, better known as the Deal of the Century, and called for holding an international peace conference to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“Normalisation with Arab countries, serves the Israeli plans to establish peace without paying price for its aggression on the Palestinians and occupation of their lands,” Ashrawi noted.