“John Kerry attempts, during all his trips to the Middle East, to force Palestinians and other Arab nations to cooperate with Israel,” Ali Faisal, a member of the political bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) told al-Alam on Wednesday.

“The US has promised the return of lands to Palestinians based on the 1967 borderlines and assured Israel that the Jewish nature of the regime would be recognized, but it seems unlikely the Palestinian side would accept such an equation,” Faisal said.

“Palestinians have reached the consensus on putting an end to building settlement units and the release of Palestinian prisoners,” Faisal said, expressing concern over Kerry’s pressure on Arab foreign ministers to accept Israel’s preconditions for talks.

The DFLP member also criticized a recent meeting between a PA official and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that the unjustifiable meeting caused the increase of pressure on the Palestinian side.

The United States, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has supported the Israeli regime on several occasions by vetoing resolutions against Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv regime continues expanding its illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The continued expansion of the Israeli settlements has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

NTJ/HH