U.S. Envoy Haley Warns PA: Don’t Expect U.N. to Push Israel

YERUSHALAYIM
The United Nations General Assembly building in New York.

United States Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley on Tuesday warned the Palestinian Authority not to seek diplomatic solutions to its claims against Israel at the world body, but rather through direct negotiations with Israel. A report on Channel Two said that Nikki Haley met with the PA’s U.N. representative Riyad Mansour, and that the U.S. representative also slammed the PA’s ongoing incitement against Israel.

Nikki Haley said that the United States was “considering” a bid to revive Israel-PA negotiations, but that nothing had been decided yet. In lieu of that, however, the PA needed to seek other direct channels to reach out to Israel; the U.N., she said, was not an option. Direct talks were the only way to peace, “instead of expecting the U.N. to bring about results,” she told Mr. Mansour.

One way to pave the way for such talks, she said, was for the PA to reduce its negative tone on Israel. The PA’s ongoing incitement against Israel has not gone unnoticed in Washington, and Nikki Haley told Mr. Mansour that it was unacceptable, according to Channel Two.

After the meeting, Nikki Haley wrote in several online posts reflecting the discussions. The PA, she wrote, should “meet with Israel in direct negotiations rather than looking to the U.N. to deliver results that can only be achieved through the two parties.” In addition, she wrote, the U.S. “is committed to supporting a true peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. We absolutely support a two-state solution, but we are thinking out of the box as well.”

At a meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in mid-February, President Donald Trump said that as far as he was concerned, the final resolution of the Middle East conflict was up to both sides. “So, I’m looking at two-state and one-state and I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one. I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two, but honestly, if Netanyahu and the Palestinians are happy, I’m happy with the one they like the best.”

Mr. Netanyahu, for his part, said that he was also ready for any solution, but that Israel’s security could not be compromised. “First, the Palestinians must recognize the Jewish state, they must stop calling for Israel’s destruction,” he told reporters after the meeting. “Second, Israel must retain security control over all of the area west of the Jordan River.” Without that, the result would be as happened in Gaza, “another failed state, another Islamist dictatorship that will not work for peace, but work to destroy us,” Mr. Netanyahu added.

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