In a recording of a September 22 meeting with Palestinian Americans, PA President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly scolded US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“I told Blinken, ‘You little boy, don’t do that,’” Abbas said in Arabic. Some details of the meeting were first published by the Haya Washington Arabic news site and the story was first reported in the Times of Israel on Thursday.
“I know your history,” Abbas said he told Blinken, emphasizing his point by relating that during the 1956 Suez Crisis, Israel agreed to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip after US president Dwight Eisenhower ordered prime minister David Ben Gurion to do so.
“The lesson [from this] is not to say, ‘My beloved, do this or don’t do that,’” Abbas told Blinken, instructing him to strongarm Israel into doing as told. He claimed the US deals with “190 countries” in this manner, but not Israel. He went on to tell the Palestinian attendees that he used to believe the US claims that Israel was the obstacle to negotiations.
“It’s not that the Israelis don’t want peace but the Americans don’t want peace,” Abbas said.
Asked for comment on Abbas’s remarks, a State Department spokesperson said that Blinken “has maintained a respectful dialogue with President Abbas. Beyond that, we’ll decline to comment on the content of their conversations.”
A source told TOI, “This is not an accurate characterization of their discussions.”
