Palestine welcomes US announcement on restoring ties

Sabri Seidam, deputy Secretary-General of the central committee of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, told reporters here on Wednesday that the Palestinians look forward to restoring ties with Biden administration, reports Xinhua news agency. 

"Restoring ties with the US has to be based on implementing international law and the UN resolutions related to resolving the Palestinian cause," Seidam said. 

Ties between Palestine and the former US government of Donald Trump were severed after the latter recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017 and encouraged Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank. 

"Returning to Trump's plan won't be accepted by the Palestinians," Seidam said, adding the Palestinians want to deal with a non-biased US administration and are ready to communicate with it. 

On Tuesday, Richard Mills, the new US ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council that the Biden administration is intending to abolish all Trump's policies toward the Palestinians. 

Biden's Middle East policy "will be to support a mutually agreed, two-state solution, in which Israel lives in peace and security, alongside a viable Palestinian state", Mills added. 

The Ambassador added that the administration intends to restore Palestinian aid and take steps to reopen diplomatic missions closed by Trump administration. 

"In order to advance these objectives the Biden administration will restore credible US engagement with Palestinians as well as Israelis. 

"This will involve renewing US relations with the Palestinian leadership and Palestinian people. 

"President Biden has been clear that he intends to restore US assistance programs that support economic development programs and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, and to take steps to reopen diplomatic relations that were closed by the last US administration," Mills added.