After Boycotting Trump, Palestinian PM to Resume Talks with US

On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced that official contacts would be made with the new US administration of president, Joe Biden, after a three-year political boycott of the US previous administration, in response to its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In a statement, Shtayyeh said that he had contacted Mr. Hadi Amr, responsible for the Palestinian and Israeli affairs file at the US State Department to discuss the possibility of resuming Palestinian-US relations especially in terms of opening diplomatic and consular offices, returning the American aid, supporting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and enhancing ties to advance the political process.

Trump’s moves, which broke with decades of U.S. policy, had delighted Israel but infuriated the Palestinians, who claim east Jerusalem as a future capital and considered Trump’s backing for Israel as undermining their own goal of statehood.

Palestinian's President Mahmoud Abbas’s boycott was popular among Palestinians, who celebrated Trump’s defeat on Sunday on the streets.

But, even as security contacts with Washington continued behind the scenes, the Palestinian leadership felt increasingly isolated, especially after Israel signed agreements with Gulf Arab states to normalize ties.

Biden has said he would restore funding to the West Bank and Gaza that Trump had cut, including assistance delivered through the U.S. Agency for International Development and U.N. agencies.

He has also in the past opposed Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, and voiced support for a two-state solution to the conflict, a formula that would see a future state of Palestine co-existing alongside Israel.

But he is not likely to reverse the Jerusalem and embassy decisions and Biden has welcomed Israel’s rapprochements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, even as Palestinians condemned those moves.

Among the Palestinians hit hardest by Trump were refugees, following his 2018 decision to cut off all U.S. funding - more than $300 million annually - to UNRWA, the United Nations agency.