President Biden took steps to reverse Trump’s policies in the Middle East, launching government support to find a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine.
In a virtual address to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, the US interim ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Mills, said the week-long government supports a “viable Palestinian state” but “will maintain its unwavering support for Israel “- signaling the delicate balance, they will try to juggle.
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The Trump administration closed the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Washington, DC office, froze all federal contributions to the UN Assistance and Labor Agency – which provides support to Palestinian refugees, and transferred the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a critical point for Palestinians who also see Jerusalem as a sacred city that should be in Palestine.
But former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also helped draft a peace proposal that allowed Israel to retain control over the West Bank, which the United Nations has considered an illegal occupation since 1967.
Mills acknowledged the challenge that the Biden government faces, as they try to overcome a divide that has not yet been overcome since Israel began in 1948.
But the interim US ambassador also said that the Biden government believes that “the best way to guarantee Israel’s future as a democratic and Jewish state” is to secure its relationship with Palestine.
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He also applauded the diplomatic ties that the Trump administration established between Israel and several nations in the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
While these achievements are likely to be attributed as one of Trump’s greatest successes as president, Palestine sees these normalized relations as a betrayal of Arab nations.
“We hope that it will be possible to start working slowly to build trust on both sides to create an environment in which we can once again be able to help advance a solution,” said Mills on Tuesday.
Mills told the panel of 15 people that the U.S. is not looking to reverse Trump-era policies just to appease the Palestinian government, but for security in the region.
“We do not take these steps as a favor for the Palestinian leadership,” said Mills. “US assistance benefits millions of ordinary Palestinians and helps preserve a stable environment that benefits both Palestinians and Israelis.”
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The interim ambassador also told the UN panel that they will try to continue to normalize ties between the Jewish state and neighboring Arab nations, but noted that this “is not a substitute for Israeli-Palestinian peace”.
Despite the Biden administration’s clear intention to reverse most Trump-era policies in the way the U.S. works with Israel, Mills did not say that the U.S. would remove the American embassy from Jerusalem.