RAMALLAH, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- The spokesperson of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party Nasser Qudwa said anti-Palestine laws in the U.S. are used by pro-Israeli lobbies against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representation in the country, but it is unlikely to shut down the office of PLO in Washington.
Qudwa warned in a special interview with Xinhua that shutting down the PLO office would bring harsh reaction from the Palestinians, although such a decision has not yet materialized as a final order.
"For us, closing down the office is something that is extremely negative, and that, of course, there is going to be a harsh reaction from the Palestinian side," he said. "We will see, but its going to be extremely negative development affecting everything effectively in the Palestinian-American relationship."
This shutdown order came in accordance with an 1987 anti-terrorism bill, passed by the U.S. Congress, that has set many restrictions on the PLO existence in the United States.
He went on explaining that the U.S. State Department is playing down the effect of former notification of the office shut down, which is also allowed under American law, in a period of 90 days, during which the U.S. President is allowed to sign a waiver for the office, but only for one year.
Qudwa described the context behind the shut down order as "a web of laws that are hostile to the Palestinian people and the PLO."
However, "the State Department is saying things that are a little bit more positive. For instance, yesterday (Tuesday), they said that they want to have this office, they want to keep it functioning, and they are looking into ways to do that," he pointed out.
With the hostile environment in the U.S. and the lack of a peace vision, the Palestinians have tried to take advantage of their new status in the UN and international legitimacy resolutions.
The experienced diplomat, who represented Palestine in the UN for the first time in 1987, became a permanent observer there between 1991 and 2005, said it is time for the Palestinians to focus on implementation tools of the UN Security Council resolution 2334, which states that "Israel's establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity."
"It has been barely a year since the Council adopted Security Council resolution 2334, which is very very important document, a very important legal tool and I think we should focus on the need to implement the resolution," he added.
Meanwhile, as Palestinian factions agreed to broaden the internal reconciliation process and work to hold general presidential and legislative elections during their recent Egypt-brokered talks in Cairo, the veteran Fatah strongman and former diplomat showed no high expectations.
When asked about the intra-Palestinian dialogue that took place in Cairo, he said: "our hope to make serious progress toward more efforts in this regard to enable us to achieve the goal of reunification and reconciliation between all in Palestine."
