Secretary of State Antony Blinken has vowed to rebuild US relations with Palestinians. On Thursday, the US top diplomat met Palestinian Authority President Mahmood Abbas and reportedly told him that the US would certainly re-open consulate in Jerusalem and give Gaza financial aid. The incumbent US administration policy the relation to the Middle East in general and the Israel-Palestinian conflict in particular has clearly signalled a clean break with US policy under former president Donald Trump who had shuttered the diplomatic mission for Palestinian in 2019 and slashed aid to the Palestinian Authority.

It is quite likely President Joe Biden would exert pressure on the ultra right-wing Israeli government to revisit Zionist state’s policies that are overly characterised by growing belligerence and aggression against Palestinians. The US will be required to work harder to help achieve the ‘two-state solution’ advocated by President Biden himself.

Hamid Khan (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021