Kerry threatens to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority

US Secretary of State John Kerry has renewed his threats to impose possible financial and political sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA), if the authority takes any unilateral action like resorting to the Security Council (UNSC) to ask for recognition for a Palestinian state.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, official sources confirmed to al-Araby al-Jadeed that Kerry called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last night and warned him against taking any unilateral measures, threatening to impose US financial and political sanctions on the PA. He said the most effective way forward would be to resume negotiations. 

The sources added that “Kerry stressed the importance of calming the situation in occupied Jerusalem to avoid serious consequences.” Earlier talks between a Palestinian delegation and US officials failed to convince the US to apply pressure on Israel to halt settlement expansion and support UNSC recognition of a Palestinian state.

The sources said an Arab committee would meet in Cairo on 29 November to put the final touches on an Arab draft resolution to be submitted to the UNSC to recognise the Palestinian state.

However, speaking to al-Araby al-Jadeed, other sources close to the PA expressed doubt that Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas would actually fulfil his repeated pledges to go to the UNSC.

“There are Arab and US pressures that will make it impossible for the Palestinian President to take a step like submitting the draft resolution by the end of this month or even before the end of this year”, the sources added.

In his speech during the commemoration of the death of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on 11 November, Abbas warned that if Palestine did not receive at least nine votes from Security Council states to support the draft resolution to end the Israeli occupation, or if it was vetoed by the US, the next step would be to join international conventions and organisations, a reference to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Washington has let the PA know that it would take action against it if it tried to initiate litigation against Israel at the ICC for “crimes extending from settlement expansion to the war on Gaza.

Al-Araby al-Jadid has learned that in spite of Abbas’s threat the PA has not made any actual preparations for taking a case to the ICC.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.