The Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) strongly criticized the United States decision to close its consulate in Jerusalem and merge it into its embassy in the city, stressing that with this move, the US is acting against international law and conventions, on Monday.

The PLO said in a statement, “The decision of the American administration to close the American consulate in Palestine, which was opened in Jerusalem in 1844, as of this morning and merge it with the US embassy in Israel after moving it from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and operating a special unit for Palestine in the embassy reflect the level of audacity of the American administration in striking the international decisions, which it has contributed to writing, and a denial of the historic rights of our people and the international conventions and laws that support the right of our people to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories started in 1967, the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return for refugees as per United Nations resolution 194.”

The PLO added that “This decision is the implementation of the policy and decision of the colonial settlements council in the West Bank.”

The PLO stressed that “with the American administration insisting on implementing its plan to impose a surrender solution on the Palestinian people goes in line with the understandings of the right wing in Israel under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the peace process they want through separating Gaza from the West Bank, as Netanyahu personally proposed lately, and establishing a mini-state there while creating an autonomous authority in the West Bank under Israeli occupation forever.”

“With the US proceeding with this policy proves once again that it has chosen to disqualify itself to solely lead the peace process, which the Palestinian people will not accept anyhow,” stressing “the peace process should be revived through an international peace conference attended by the permanent members of the (UN) Security Council and expanding the circle of participants politically and regionally under the umbrella of the United Nations and based on its international resolutions.”

The PLO statement also “reaffirmed the need to strengthen the unity of the faction within the PLO and its role in leading the struggle of the Palestinian people, uniting its potential and abilities to in confronting the American-Israeli attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause and to work on consolidating the Arab and Palestinian position in adhering to the Palestinian national program and the Arab Peace Initiative in the letter and spirit, which was embodied recently in the Arab-European Summit held in Sharm el-Sheikh.”

PLO reasserted its decision “to stop all political contacts with the US administration and its representatives, warning anyone against going around this decision, whether they were individuals or institutions which the US or Israel seek through them to break the Palestinian position by weakening the role of the PLO that rejects the ‘Deal of the Century.’”