Diplomatic Sources Reveal to SadaNews Reasons and Goals Behind US State Department's Decision to Impose Sanctions on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization

SadaNews - According to Western and Arab diplomatic sources to "SadaNews", the US State Department's announcement of sanctions against officials in the Palestinian Authority due to diplomatic actions includes everyone working in the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority from members of the organization's executive committee, leaders and activists of the "Fatah" movement, government ministers, and even senior and junior employees in both the civil and military sectors of the Palestinian Authority.

The current sanctions, as stated in the US State Department's announcement, focus on preventing these individuals from obtaining a visa to enter the United States.

The US announcement came just one day after a meeting between US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and Palestinian businessmen in Ramallah, and days after his visit to several Palestinian villages that had been attacked by settlers, as well as a meeting with Palestinian Vice President Hussein Sheikh, and another meeting with Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, as SadaNews learned at the time.

Sources confirm that the US announcement came due to French diplomatic efforts, which culminated in the recognition of a Palestinian state, which led to the recognition of the Palestinian state by other European and global countries, especially after the success of the international conference supervised by Saudi Arabia and France at the United Nations to support the resolution of the conflict and the two-state solution.

Sources clarify that this is one of the main real reasons for imposing sanctions on these Palestinian entities, despite the fact that the US State Department did not specify the reason in its statement announcing the sanctions.

Sources state: Preventing members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, government ministers, and leaders and activists of the "Fatah" movement from obtaining visas to enter its territory aims to prevent them from attending the UN General Assembly meetings next September, during which many countries will recognize a Palestinian state.

Sources told "SadaNews" that Israel will likely exploit the US announcement to undermine the last diplomatic options available to the Palestinian Authority in favor of supporting the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, indicating that the aim of the US move is to support Israel's attempts to eliminate the diplomatic steps of the Authority in this regard.

Sources anticipate that Israel will exploit this by the extreme Israeli government to incite against the offices of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the West Bank, and possibly go towards closing them under the pretext that they are illegitimate, adding: "No one knows how Israel will respond currently to this."

It is known that the leaders of the Palestinian Authority cannot move between cities or even travel abroad without coordination and Israeli permission.

Sources say: "The situation becomes more complicated, and before this US step, Israel had taken a series of measures aimed at ending the existence of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, including halting and pirating the transfer of clearance funds, which has caused a severe financial crisis, and significantly increasing settlement projects to seize what remains of the West Bank."

Sources questioned the role of Western countries that recognized Palestine, in dealing with these expected measures after the US decision, asking how they would respond to attempts to end the role of the Palestinian Authority, and the benefit of the step they took if it ultimately leads to the collapse of the last political capabilities of the Palestinians.

In response to the US State Department's decision, Israeli Foreign Minister Gidion Saar expressed his gratitude to his American counterpart Marco Rubio for his country's stance on imposing sanctions on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Saar said: "The Palestinian Authority must pay the price for its ongoing policy of paying money to terrorists and their families in exchange for attacks and incitement against Israel in schools, textbooks, mosques, and Palestinian media," according to him, as translated by SadaNews.