Palestinian Authority Recalls Envoys from U.S. and Four EU Countries Over Embassy Move

TEL AVIV – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recalled the Palestinian envoys to the U.S. and four EU countries over their support of President Donald Trump’s decision to open the American embassy in its new location in Jerusalem Monday.

Husam Zomlot returned for an indefinite period of time to Ramallah Wednesday.

“When [the U.S.] opened their embassy in Jerusalem there was a need for a decision from our side and this was our decision,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said.

The Palestinian envoys to Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Austria were also recalled over their attendance at a reception Sunday night ahead of the opening of the U.S. embassy.

On Monday, Abbas slammed the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem as a “settlement outpost” and vowed that the Palestinians will not take parts in peace talks brokered by the Americans “in any way, shape or form.” He also repeated the lie that Jews have no ties to the land of Israel.

At an emergency meeting in Ramallah following the inauguration of the new embassy, he called the embassy “a new settlement outpost, just like the Israeli settlements” and an “assault on our sovereignty, an assault on our established rights.”

“Palestine is for the Palestinians and is not, as the Jews claim, the land of their ancestors,” he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dismissed the U.S. on Tuesday as “no longer a partner and a broker.”

“We will not sit with them,” Erekat said. “They have become part of the problem not part of the solution, a big part of the problem. Trump’s administration is the biggest problem.”

Erekat also called the White House officials “real estate dealers” and accused the Trump administration of being “based on lies.”

The U.S. embassy was relocated to the Arnona neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Abbas also condemned the IDF’s response to violent riots near the Gaza border, which saw 60 Palestinians killed, according to Hamas’s Gaza Health Ministry. At least 24 of those killed were members of terror groups, the IDF said. Hamas confirmed that of those, half were operatives belonging to the terror organization.