US envoy slams Palestinian Authority

JERUSALEM

U.S. Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt has criticized the Palestinian Authority, saying it rejected U.S. peace proposal for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict even before studying it.

This came in an editorial by Greenblatt in Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom on Monday.

The U.S. envoy said President Donald Trump wants to make 2018 a “year of peace”, citing the political equation in the region has changed.

He argued that Israel is no longer a common enemy for the Arab world, including the Palestinians.

Greenblatt said that Iran is now the enemy for Arabs and Israel.

“When I visited the region for the first time in 1983, the prevailing situation in the Arab world [with the exception of Egypt] was hostility and war with Israel,” Greenblatt said. “But after 35 years, there is a different reality. In facing the aggressive Iran … most leaders now realize that Israel is not the problem - and that the Jewish state can be part of the solution for them.”

The Palestinian leadership has rejected U.S. mediation since December, when Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Reporting by Osama al-Ghassani:Writing by Mahmoud Barakat