The secretary of the PLO’s Executive Committee, Saeb Erekat, said that the Palestinian leadership was under a “fierce and toxic” campaign.
“It is clear that the ‘NO’ that President Mahmoud Abbas has raised in the face of the United States will have significant costs for our people to pay,” Erekat told Palestine’s official radio station.
He also accused Washington of trying to weaken the Palestinian leadership and shake its credibility.
“Take US ambassador to Israel David Friedman for example. He lied twice in a short time saying that East Jerusalem will be the capital of Palestine, despite the presence of a literal text in the ‘conspiracy of the era’ that reads: The capital will be in Kafr Aqab and Abu Dis. Second, he spoke about contacts taking place with the Palestinians. This is a lie.”
“Through such statements, Friedman wants to undermine the credibility of the PLO, the government and the national authority in front of our people and our Arab brothers,” he noted.
Erekat’s comments came in response to the US ambassador who had said that his administration was conducting negotiations through back-channel channels with the Palestinians on the so-called “deal of the century.”
“I challenge Friedman to reveal the name of one Palestinian official in contact with the Trump administration,” the PLO official stressed.
