The Trump administration‘s move to shutter the PLO’s Washington office is part of a pressure campaign to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table for Middle East peace talks. | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images White House to close Palestine Liberation Organization’s D.C. office

The Trump administration announced Monday that it will shutter the Washington office of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the latest step in what U.S. officials call a pressure campaign to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table for Middle East peace talks led by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.

Kushner and other Trump officials are expected to unveil a proposal for a Middle East peace agreement soon, but the move is likely to increase short-term tensions between Washington and the Palestinians. “The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Palestinians refuse to take steps to start direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” national security adviser John Bolton said Monday.


Bolton, speaking at the conservative Federalist Society, also targeted the International Criminal Court, which he threatened with economic sanctions and other punitive measures should it pursue charges against U.S. military and intelligence officials who served in Afghanistan. The ICC's chief magistrate said in November that the body would look into allegations of torture and other abuses by Americans in the country. The sanctions could include barring members of the court from entering the U.S.

Bolton also warned the ICC not to investigate actions by Israel's security forces against the Palestinians that critics have called war crimes. "While the court welcomes the membership of the so-called State of Palestine,” Bolton said, “it has threatened Israel — a liberal democratic nation — with investigation into its actions in the West Bank and Gaza to defend its citizens from terrorist attacks.”

“[W]e will not allow the ICC or any other organization to constrain Israel’s right to self-defense,” Bolton added. He said the decision to close the PLO office "reflect[s] Congressional concerns with Palestinian attempts to prompt an ICC investigation of Israel."

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Palestinian leaders urged the court in May to probe Israel's "past, ongoing and future crimes within the court's jurisdiction, committed in all parts of the territory of the State of Palestine."

While Trump officials say that shuttering the PLO office could command the attention of the Palestinians and bring them to the table for peace talks with Israel, many analysts believe it will only further anger a Palestinian leadership that has publicly written off the Trump administration as an honest peace broker.

Monday's moves also comes after the Trump administration — reportedly at Kushner's urging — has decided to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the U.N. agency that aids Palestinian refugees. Earlier this year, Trump infuriated Palestinians by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moving the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv — an affront to Palestinians who would claim at least part of Jerusalem for their future capital.

Palestinian officials on Monday quickly rebuked the Trump administration. “We reiterate that the rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale, that we will not succumb to US threats and bullying and that we will continue our legitimate struggle for freedom, justice, and independence, including by all political and legal means possible,” a top Palestinian official, Saeb Erekat, said in a statement.

The Palestinian ambassador to the U.S., Husam Zomlot — who was recalled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in May, shortly after the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem — blasted the administration’s announcement Monday.

Speaking of the PLO office closure, Zomlot said: “Such a reckless act confirms that the administration is blindly executing Israel’s ‘wish list,’ which starts with shutting down Palestinian diplomatic representation in the US.”

“We stand firm in our decision not to cooperate in this ongoing campaign to liquidate our rights and cause,” Zomlot said in a statement. “Our rights are not for sale and we will block any attempts at bullying and blackmailing us to forgo our legitimate and internationally endorsed rights.”

In an apparent reference to the ICC, Zomlot added that Palestinians will "step up our efforts to hold Israel accountable under international law."

“[T]he PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. “To the contrary, PLO leadership has condemned a U.S. peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise.”

“The United States continues to believe that direct negotiations between the two parties are the only way forward. This action should not be exploited by those who seek to act as spoilers to distract from the imperative of reaching a peace agreement,” Nauert added.

The administration’s rebuke of the ICC aligns with Bolton’s long-standing aversion to international institutions he views as violating American sovereignty. As an official in the George W. Bush administration in the 2000s, Bolton led opposition to U.S. membership in the ICC.

In his speech, Bolton laced into the court for what he called its vague definitions of criminality, lack of accountability and spurious claims of authority.

“The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court,” Bolton said. “We will not cooperate with the ICC, we will provide no assistance to the ICC, and we certainly will not join the ICC.”

Matthew Waxman, a former State Department official in the Bush administration who worked on ICC policy, said: “This speech contains many of the same arguments behind the Bolton-led ICC policy during the early George W. Bush administration, but it amps up the threats against those who support the ICC or look to use it against the United States or Israel.”

“During the Bush administration,“ Waxman addied, “there were other senior officials who worked to balance this policy with other interests, including holding perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable and managing friction with allies. So long as he‘s in office, Bolton will probably have a lot of control over this policy, and he is relentless.”

A representative for Human Rights Watch on Monday lambasted Bolton's moves against the court as showing "callous disregard for victims of atrocity crimes."

Liz Evenson, associate international justice director for HRW, said in a statement: "Any US action to scuttle ICC inquiries on Afghanistan and Palestine would demonstrate that the administration was more concerned with coddling serial rights abusers — and deflecting scrutiny of US conduct in Afghanistan — than supporting impartial justice."

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Monday that, should the ICC open investigations into U.S. activity in Afghanistan, the administration would consider negotiating agreements to prevent nations from surrendering Americans to the court, and attempt to “constrain the Court’s sweeping powers” through the United Nations Security Council.

The administration would also weigh banning ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the U.S., sanctioning their funds, and prosecuting them in American courts, Sanders said.

The administration’s announcement comes days before the 25th anniversary of the Oslo Accords on Sept. 13. Those accords are generally considered the beginning of the formal Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which many experts and diplomats have pronounced dead.

The U.N. General Assembly will also convene later this month in New York for its 73rd annual session, with Trump set to preside over a meeting of the U.N. Security Council expected to focus, in part, on Iran.

Michael Crowley contributed to this report.