Washington – Pompeo: US Blocked $165M In Funding Due To Palestinian Incitement

Washington – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo teased the Trump administration’s upcoming peace plan on Wednesday as a “truly historic” effort to broker an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, accepting an award from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America in Washington.

Speaking at the Grand Hyatt downtown, with senators and diplomats in the audience, the secretary hinted at a plan that would offer the Palestinians a state – a word only recently introduced into US President Donald Trump’s lexicon, when he endorsed a two-state solution to the storied conflict last month.

“We are making a truly historic push for peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Pompeo told the crowd. The peace plan– designed by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Jason Greenblatt, his special representative for international negotiations, over the course of nearly two years– will be released “before too terribly long, and we are hopeful that both sides will have constructive conversations to lead to that.”

“We are very hopeful that one day the Palestinian people will have the same kinds of things, the same material, the same opportunities that the people of Israel have,” said Pompeo. ” A real economy, a real governance, all the things that we want for every citizen of the world.”

“We very much want you to have a space,” he added.

But Pompeo also announced to the crowd that he had denied a $165 million transfer of aid to the Palestinian Authority earlier in the day, over its failure to adhere to the Taylor Force Act, a law that bars the State Department from continuing aid to the PA unrelated to security cooperation unless Ramallah ceases its practice of compensating the families of convicted murderers and terrorists.