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Biden to Reengage With Palestinians 02/24 06:22
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Biden administration is moving slowly but surely
toward reengaging with the Palestinians after a near total absence of official
contact during former President Donald Trump's four years in office.
As American officials plan steps to restore direct ties with the Palestinian
leadership, Biden's national security team is taking steps to restore relations
that had been severed while Trump pursued a Mideast policy focused largely
around Israel, America's closest partner in the region.
On Tuesday, for the second time in two days, Biden's administration
categorically embraced a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, something that Trump had been purposefully vague about while slashing
aid to the Palestinians and taking steps to support Israel's claims to land
that the Palestinians want for an independent state.
The State Department said Tuesday that a U.S. delegation attended a meeting
of a Norwegian-run committee that serves as a clearinghouse for assistance to
the Palestinians. Although little-known outside foreign policy circles, the
so-called Ad Hoc Liaison Committee has been influential in the peace process
since Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords in 1993.
"During the discussion, the United States reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to
advancing prosperity, security, and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians
and to preserve the prospects of a negotiated two-state solution in which
Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state," the
State Department said in a statement.
"The United States underscored the commitment to supporting economic and
humanitarian assistance and the need to see progress on outstanding projects
that will improve the lives of the Palestinian people, while urging all parties
to avoid unilateral steps that make a two-state solution more difficult to
achieve," it said.
U.S. participation in the meeting followed a Monday call between Secretary
of State Antony Blinken and Israel's foreign minister in which Blinken stressed
that the new U.S. administration unambiguously supports a two-state solution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is close to Trump, has eschewed
the two-state solution.
Biden spoke to Netanyahu last week for the first time as president after a
delay that many found suspicious and suggestive of a major realignment in U.S.
policy. Blinken, however, has spoken to Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi
twice amid ongoing concern in Israel about Biden's intentions in the region,
particularly his desire to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.
In Monday's call, Blinken "emphasized the Biden administration's belief that
the two-state solution is the best way to ensure Israel's future as a Jewish
and democratic state, living in peace alongside a viable and democratic
Palestinian state," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.
The Trump administration had presented its own version of a two-state peace
plan, though it would have required significant Palestinian concessions on
territory and sovereignty.
The Palestinians, however, rejected it out of hand and accused the U.S. of
no longer being an honest peace broker after Trump recognized Jerusalem as
Israel's capital, moved the U.S. embassy to the city from Tel Aviv, cut off aid
to the Palestinian Authority, closed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in
Washington and rescinded a long-standing legal opinion that Israeli settlement
activity is illegitimate under international law,
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