Rubio to close liaison office to Palestinian Authority

The US State Department announces plans to close the Office of Palestinian Affairs, established by the Biden administration as a scaled-down consulate to the PA in Jerusalem.

By World Israel News Staff

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the closure of the department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem less than three years after it was established by the Biden administration.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday that the Office of Palestinian Affairs, which was established in June 2022 by the Biden administration as a down-scaled consulate to the Palestinian Authority, is slated to be shuttered and its responsibilities returned to the U.S. Embassy to Israel.

“Secretary Rubio has decided to merge the responsibilities of the Office of the Palestinian Affairs fully into other sections of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem,” Bruce said.

“This decision will restore the first Trump term framework of a unified U.S. diplomatic mission in Israel’s capital that reports to the U.S. ambassador to Israel,” he added. “Ambassador Huckabee will take the steps necessary to implement the merger over the coming weeks.”

The move comes just weeks after the Trump administration terminated the position of U.S. Security Coordinator (USSC), a liaison to the Palestinian Authority’s security apparatus who also worked to facilitate cooperation between Israeli and PA forces.

The Office of Palestinian Affairs was created by then-secretary of state Antony Blinken three years after the first Trump administration downgraded ties with the Palestinian Authority by shuttering the U.S. Consulate General’s Office in Jerusalem, a facility which had served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinian Authority.

The Biden administration established the Office of the Palestinian Affairs (OPA) in lieu of a full consular office amid objections by Israeli authorities, who refused to approve the opening of a new consular facility.

Rubio’s decision to dismantle the OPA will restore the office’s responsibilities to the Embassy’s Palestinian Affairs Unit, which was created in 2019 following the closure of the consulate.