The Biden administration restressed its full commitment to re-opening a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday.
"There are a number of steps that have to go into the reopening of any diplomatic facility. As you know, there are some shall we say unique sensitivities to this particular facility," Price said at a regular news briefing, rejecting any suggestion the consulate plan had been shelved.
"We are working through the issue with our Palestinian and Israeli partners," he added, asserting that the administration is further discussing the issue with Israelis and Palestinians.
On Sunday, the Times of Israel, citing unidentified U.S. and Palestinian officials, reported Washington was planning to appoint the current top State Department diplomat for the region, Hady Amr, as a special envoy to the Palestinians.
Asked about the report, the spokesperson noted that he did not have any personnel announcements to make.
On his part, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas affirmed the current situation in the country cannot be accepted nor tolerated amid the absence of a political horizon and international protection for the Palestinian people in accordance with signed agreements and resolutions of international legitimacy.
Moreover, Abbas stressed that the Palestinian leadership is working hard to confront this Israeli escalation, condemning the international community’s inability to compel Israel to adhere to the resolutions of international legitimacy and its failure to stop Israel’s criminal and occupying practices, ethnic cleansing measures, and racial discrimination, amid the US silence on these provocations and practices that are in flagrant violation of international law.
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