on friday. bangladesh says it's negotiating with me and maher to arrange for the repatriation of for him refugees who fled a recent crackdown that was made after a number of foreign ministers from europe and asia visited the refugee camps in cox's bazar on the side of the border. and those are the latest headlines on al-jazeera stay with us it's inside story coming next. the earth . palestinian leaders present and all communication with the u.s. government that's after the trumpet ministration said it will close the yellows office in washington so what's behind this move and what does it mean for trump's peace plan this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm laura kyle over the past fifty years since the one nine hundred sixty seven arab israeli war been countless talks negotiations and un resolutions and the palestinian liberation organization has been at the forefront of peace talks over the years but now donald trump's ministrations as it was shut down the p.l.o. office in washington d.c. that's in response to palestinian efforts to raise the issue of israel's occupation of the international criminal court and if the u.s. goes ahead with its plans by the simians say they will end all communication with washington we have a lot to get to with our guests but first this report from the an estabrook. the plant closure of the palestinian liberation organization's office in washington prompted shock and a threat from a senior palestinian official to freeze ties with the us this is very unfortunate and seven this is the pressure being exerted on this administration from the if you know government and the time when we are trying to put it to achieve the ultimate you think such steps which would undermine the peace process the u.s. state department announced its decision to close the office late last week citing a twenty fifteen law placing conditions on the u.s. mission office those conditions relate to the palestinians pressuring the international criminal court to seek charges against israel over the issue of israeli settlements and crimes against palestinians the move comes as the troubled ministration is trying to broker a peace plan between the palestinians and israelis president donald trump said such a deal would be a cornerstone of his administration he very much in september he met with palestinian president mahmoud abbas on the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly meeting of world leaders in new york and the last while the president sent his son in law and adviser jared cushion or to the middle east in part to work out a blueprint for a deal the white house says closing the p.l.o. office doesn't mean it's cutting off communications with the palestinians and could be viewed as a way to expedite the peace process but a middle east analyst says the trumpet ministration is not bargaining in good faith the u.s. is not an honest broker the u.s. is representing its own interests and they correspond primarily with the right wing of israeli interests the closure isn't a done deal president trump has ninety days to review the decision and could keep the office open if he thinks the palestinians are engaged in meaningful and direct negotiations with the israelis die on estabrook al-jazeera washington. thank you and the palestinian liberation organization is recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the palestinian people by more than one hundred countries including israel it was established in one thousand nine hundred sixty four to liberate palestine with the help of armed struggle for decades the p.l.o. sat on the list of terrorist organizations in the u.s. and israel that lasted until the organization represented the palestinians when the so-called peace process began in madrid in one nine hundred ninety one and since then the p.l.o. has been the only negotiating player speaking on behalf of the stimulus in all direct and indirect talks with israel ok let's bring in our guests now and joining us from ramallah we have chi's adult karim a member of the palestinian liberation organization in washington d.c. hillary mann leverett a former white house national security and state department official and in london in back visiting senior fellow at the middle east center london school of economics a very warm welcome to all of you guys that start by getting some reaction from you on the planned closure of the parallels p.l.o.'s office in d.c. . in actual fact it isn't actual a closure because the office says we're not if i had to freeze and stop all its activities in the united states pending the ninety day. time time table in order. for the new and for the government for the us government to decide whether the compliance measures that they have decided will be met by the be a lot so in actual fact the. office is already closed although it's not closed physically but by its activity the act in my opinion is an act by the as a measure by the united states to disqualify itself. broker for the. peace. process in the middle east because you cannot play a role as broker if you are completely biased to one side of the conflict on the expense of the other side and it is only that the palestinians are supposed to meet the qualifications of called compliance that the united states sets unilaterally on the other hand the israelis are not ours to do anything. about our dogs that this measure against the e.p. a law office was taken at the same time that the netanyahu government had decided to forcibly effect fifty seven palestinian. families from job a little bob on the outskirts of jerusalem ok. move which is completely in defiance of international law we will certainly address where this leaves us as a peacemaker. just a little late in the discussion first of all it i just want to raise the point with you because this is a perfectly legal move isn't it that the p.l.o. office is closed if it doesn't meet the conditions that have been placed on it i mean there's nothing untoward about the actual act of placing the office the question mark perhaps it's over the timing of it as well i mean i think what this is is this is a legal move certainly in response to a congressional decision but it's a legal move with extremely. significant political diplomatic implications and i think that if you look at the history of the the way this this came into being you understand it a little better it was this amendment to the existing law was made in response to the advances made by the p.l.o. in international for the u.n. and then in its membership of the international criminal court and of course the on the palestinian side the what's what's being discussed as president of the u.n. september is using the i.c.c. to challenge the legality of israeli settlement activities in the occupied territories so it's a legal requirement but it's there for very very clear reasons that are hostile to the palestinians ability to challenge the status quo and indeed it puts the u.s. administration in a difficult position and certainly open to the sort of charges we've already heard about its status as. an impartial broker in this very difficult thing nonexistent at the moment it has to be said called the peace process which brings me to my next question henry why has the state department decided to go ahead with this. well there is a there was a legal track here that the state department had i would say almost no leeway to control the law required the secretary of state to certify in november that the palestinians were meeting the conditions of this legislation that was passed by the u.s. congress this amendment to the legislation passed by the u.s. congress and signed into law by president obama in december two thousand and fifteen so it's not a new law and it wasn't something related under the truck administration but the requirement was the secretary of state had to certify in november this month that the palestinians were not supporting international criminal court investigations into israeli war crimes including israeli settlement activities and that the palestinians were not being accepted into international organizations un agencies like interpol where they were excepted the largest international police organization where they've been accepted as a state these things violate the u.s. law and the state department had to basically follow that law or be in violation of u.s. law so here i think the state department didn't have that much legal leeway but of course the political ramifications could be quite significant because there is a guess how close those ninety days within which president trump can overturn this decision if palestinians show that they're in direct of meaningful negotiations with israel i mean that's that's quite a big if isn't it all they indirect some meaningful negotiations with israel. look this argument about the legal side of the question is completely other relevant because the. state of palestine has joined the i.c.c. since one thousand two thousand and twelve this is five years ago and since then the state department and the united states have said to fight to the congress that the. the p.l.o. and the state of palestine is in complete compliance with the requirements of peace process or engagement in the peace process so what we have now is a new. move a new policy which is based on which is shall we say. using the legal part of the question as pretext and as an argument on the other hand. why is it. forbidden. palestinians to resort to international law in order to defend themselves against actions that all would. realize is all recognizes as violations of international and that's a question is the end i want to learn and why and he says in my mission for the palestinians to address the i.c.c. for what it calls war crimes by the israelis well i mean i you know again we already answered the question this was this was an amendment to a law passed by congress and approved by president obama that the law is not in accordance with the. spirit of the palestinians have the right to appeal to international law it is it is in effect biased against them. or the fight. well it exists because in the united states there is there are political forces which are favorable to the view that the palestinian should not have that right and. in that sense favorable to israel it is a built in bias in the american political system expressed in a law passed by congress and approved by president obama president obama after all he came into office in two thousand and eight with great hopes attaching to him to what he was going to do to advance the the the middle east peace process but he failed to do that and the palestinians were understandably disappointed with that failure the fact that this law was passed and into law on his watch is part of the same story that he wasn't able to go willing or able to go far enough to meet palestinian aspirations to translate those into. a workable peace process and this law reflects that and it's the timing of this is unfortunate because it comes at a time when there is talk at least of some kind of new initiative being launched this if it goes ahead in the way that we've been discussing will make it even more difficult than it already is and i want do you think president trump thinks of this because it doesn't already play into his now does it of wanting to find what he calls the ultimate plan in the middle east. exactly and you know i don't disagree with my colleague at all in ramallah and i think this issue has been has been boiling particularly in washington and in the netanyahu government since the palestinians have become more more active in their own advocacy to gain protections from the international criminal court and to be part of international agencies but the issue for the trump administration is that this was something proceeding on a legal track it's not something that they pushed for it's not something i think that they wanted and frankly i'm not sure it's even something they clearly understood from what i understand from colleagues at the state department they weren't even sure what the decertification process would mean and the ramifications you have here in washington really bifurcated process where the white house under the person of jared cushion or and mr green blatt president trumps longtime adviser and friend the two of them are really in charge in their own bubble of pursuing the grand middle east peace process and the state department is really left to do the work of it work a day bureaucratic requirements of the u.s. law and u.s. bureaucracy for jared cushion are and mr green blatt although they haven't made it nice words to the palestinians on their trips their focus has been almost entirely and gaining the support of the saudis in the person of crown prince mohammed bin some on and moralities as well they see those two players as the key to the peace process and what's happening with the palestinians this is an unfortunate bump in the road from what i from what i'm hearing from their perspective but it's not that critical it's not that important ok. paul what do you make of. jason greeba efforts to come up with a new middle east peace deal have a hello how much of they've been in conversation with the p.l.o. the whole to you is dealing with. the conflicts of the. to formulate a new formula for the so called ultimate deal in the region is completely biased to the zionist right wing point of view and some of them are also involved in subtle meant activity in the west bank and east jerusalem including the. bus and israel which who is one of the four or five people who are dealing or formulating this this plan and we believe that this involvement it's not only a bias but it is a direct involvement by this group in the. settler colonialist enterprise including support for the continuation of settler activity and for the continuation of the. settlements even within the framework of a peace plan which is something that the palestinians cannot accept the arabs going to to accept ok and in the final analysis it will. completely undermine the prospects of a peace deal in the in the region in with it doesn't sound very hopeful does as i mean it's supposed to be the deal of the century this time is in bandied about since april and yet we do know very little about set despite there being various leaks nothing has been concrete and and we are expecting to have some sort of blueprint uncovered in the new year to you this could be any progress. i mean i don't think whatever is revealed in the new year are not sure it's going to be that surprising i think we've seen enough evidence in public of the sort of direction the trumpet ministration is looking at we've already mentioned sorry. the arabia prince mohammed bin saddam and we talk a little else these days the crown prince makes headlines all the time i think it's fairly clear that there is an important axis between the trumpet ministration and the saudis i think that the relevant parts of a potential peace initiative must include the saudi peace initiative drawn up by the saudis in two thousand and two it's worth remembering that that was about the recognition of israel by all arab states in return for a just solution to the palestinian question that's one part of it i find it hard to imagine that won't be a significant element of whatever is being cooked up the saudis are interested in. better relations with israel but i believe that they're not able to do that openly at least without some visible effort to resolve the palestinian issue we've seen mahmoud abbas the palestinian president summoned to riyadh just the other day . we've seen these ongoing issues about reconciliation between fact and how mess in which the saudis have some say as well these are elements of a possible trump deal of the century is it likely to happen my own feeling and i think many people who follow this conflict would agree my own feeling is that without something very close to longstanding palestinian aspirations for an independent state self-determination capital east jerusalem the deal is not going to happen it would be amazed if something less than that could actually work but i think the saudi direction that grand initiative that deal of the century those are some of the things we're talking about the palestinians for example being asked to give up the right return of. a very moving bolt of the longstanding demands we do it but those are some of the bits and pieces that i think would have to be on the table is it going to happen not personally holding my breath ok every day you think of the dynamics in the region some of the is elements that. particularly saudis sort of new maneuvers throughout the region do you think that enough to see a fresh approach to the israeli palestinian conflict well let me say i share my colleague's pessimism what reality will dictate to us as an outcome here in terms of any kind of middle east peace but the view within the trumpet ministration is is very different and i think it's important to understand and to take seriously they see an unprecedented closeness in terms of the relationship between the u.s. and saudi arabia in the person of jared cushion or and crown prince mohamed bin some on and between president trump and crown prince mohammed bin the moment in saudi arabia they see unprecedented closeness between the united states and the united arab emirates with mohamed bin diet they see the prospects for an alliance between the united arab emirates saudi arabia and israel as real and unprecedented and historic they think the power of the palestinians is at an all time low they think they have cost him us almost destroyed hamas routed it from from gaza and really destroyed its leadership they think that the palestinian leadership overall is ripe for a turn for turn over they're looking not at president abbas really they're really looking at someone like muhammad dahlan who supported heavily by the united arab emirates so the perspective within the white house i think is very different than many of us who are looking at the region and what i would call a more realistic way but the perspective in the white house is different and it's important to understand and take seriously because there. acting on it they're acting in close coordination with the saudis and the m.r. adi's and other palestinians who are not necessarily represented in ramallah today because is this something that you feel that other members of the p.l.o. feel that there's a very different approach being taken by trump and his white house and indeed that the saudis putting pressure on abbas to fall into line. if these are the prospects or the perspective of the trumpet and station i think that they are drowning in themselves in illusions because this will materialize in nothing but. playing with fire in the region and. exploding all the. conflicts including the conflicts that have to do with the palestinian cause i do not think that there is a possibility for any our government. whatever. desires are it is not impossible for any our government actually to normalize. relations with this let alone. allying themselves with the without a just solution and a just solution. for the palestinian cause as outlined in the arab peace plan which was all regionally saudi planned that is complete israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories in one nine hundred sixty seven a palestinian independence state in the study tories and the solution of the palestinian. refugee problem on the basis of international law and international resolution one thousand four these are the three tenets on which normalization between the arab and muslim countries would be would have been affected otherwise i do not think that any arab country will dare to. open relations with the israelis let alone an open alliance and i'm just i'm very quickly in less than a minute what will it take then for any real progress to be made. it's hard it's hard to see and i think the you know i think i agree with everything that we've that everybody has said i don't think that the trumpet ministration is being realistic i think that there is this fantasy about saudi arabia it's much more about iran and i think the things between the united states and saudi arabia could make a difference with iran i don't believe they can make a difference on the palestinian issue for the reasons that we've all mentioned i think it is a fantasy and a dangerous one because they will leave the status quo in a very volatile state very interesting indeed that we will have to leave the discussions they definitely will be repeating the discussion revisiting the discussion should i say as the year draws to a close many thanks to all of us for joining us all of you for joining us kies addle karim henry mann leverett and in black and thank you too for watching you can see the program 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