PA Foreign Minister: Biden Too Slow in Reversing Trump’s Policies

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki criticized United States President Joe Biden on Thursday for moving too slowly to reverse all of the Trump administration’s adverse policies against the Palestinians and not using Washington’s “special” relationship to pressure Israel to abandon what he claims is Israel’s “rejection of a two-state solution and peace negotiations.”

Al-Maliki told the United Nations Security Council there were hopes that the end of Donald Trump’s administration and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government “would be enough to pave the way for renewed momentum for peace.”

But while the Biden administration reversed several “unlawful and ill-advised” Trump policies, he said it has been slow to act, especially on the U.S. commitment to reopen its consulate in East Yerushalayim, which would restore Washington’s main diplomatic mission for the Palestinians in the contested city.

After Biden took office a year ago, the Palestinians thought the United States “could try to move the Israeli position toward us,” Al-Maliki told reporters later. “But we have seen that the Israeli position has been able to move the American position a little bit towards them – and this is really what troubles us very much.”

Tor Wennesland, the U.N. Mideast envoy, told the council that six Palestinian men were killed by Israeli security forces, another died in unclear circumstances, and 249 Palestinians were injured, including 46 children, in Yehudah and Shomron in the past month. He said 15 Israelis were wounded in attacks by Palestinians.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan accused Al-Maliki of making “regurgitated accusations and baseless claims,” and of ignoring the more than 200 terror attacks carried out by Palestinians against Israel in the last month, including rock-throwing incidents and grenades and Molotov cocktails.