RAMALLAH: According to a senior Palestinian source, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has urged the US to remove the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from the US Congress's terror lists.
According to Hussein al-Sheikh, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, the PA sent an official letter to the US administration requesting that the PLO be removed from the terror lists. "We conveyed our outrage and unequivocal disapproval of the continuation of this unjust and unfair designation of Palestinians living under occupation," Al-Sheikh said, "while the Israeli terrorist organisation Kach was removed from such lists."
The Palestinian appeal comes only days after the US State Department announced the removal of five extremist groups from its list of foreign terrorist organisations, including the Israeli "Kach" group, according to reports.
Palestinians accuse the organisation of killing and wounding scores of worshipers at the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron, in the southern West Bank, in 1994, as well as inciting Palestinians to kill and displace themselves. The PLO was labelled a "terrorist organisation" by the US Congress in 1987, and it was forbidden from creating any offices in the US.
Despite the judgement, Congress permitted US presidents to give an exemption with their approval, which every US president has done except US President Donald Trump since the signing of the Oslo interim peace accord between the PLO and Israel in 1993.
Turkey wants 'formal agreement' to allow Finland and Sweden to join NATO
Palestinian and EU parliament Presidents discuss states' rising conflicts
Sri Lanka PM Ranil Wickremesinghe to retain FM Portlio