The US authorities demanded that the head of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, Husum Zomlut, immediately leave the United States. As the ambassador himself said on Sunday, September 16, his family's bank account was arrested, and permission to stay in the US was canceled.

Zomlut called the actions of the authorities "part of a large-scale campaign by Washington to exert political pressure on the PA".

Recall that a week earlier it was officially announced the closure of the representation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington. About what announced the adviser to the US President for National Security John Bolton.

Then Husum Zomlut said that the US authorities demanded that the mission of the PLO be removed within a month. According to him, the closure of the mission will not affect the actions of the Palestinians to acquire their state with the capital in Jerusalem. "We lost understanding with the leadership of the United States, but world public opinion is still on our side," he added..

It should be noted that the Trump administration has warned the Palestinian authorities earlier about the possibility of closing the representative office. So, last November the State Department said that the PLO mission could be closed in the next months if the PA leadership continues to boycott peace initiatives and will not return to the negotiating table with Israel.

A concrete reason for closing the representation, and then there were threats of Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) to apply to the ICC with the demand to investigate the "war crimes of Israel".

However, it was stressed that it was not a matter of a momentary decision, and the White House administration still hoped for a solution to the problem in cooperation with Ramallah.

According to the law approved in December 2015 by the US Congress, the Palestinians lose the right to have representation in the US capital if they initiate investigations of the ICC against Israelis. At the same time, the law determines: if within 90 days the head of state considers that the Palestinians conduct "direct and purposeful negotiations" with Israel, the PLO will continue its work. Representation of the PLO in Washington has been in effect since 1994.

Source: Vesti.