(MENAFN)The US State Department refused to renew the operating permission of the Palestine Liberation Organization's office in Washington leading the office to its closure.
Under US law, for the office to work the Secretary of State must certify every six months that the PLO has complied with conditions imposed by Congress every six months. The latest six-month period however; finished on Thursday.
A State Department official said that President Mahmoud Abbas's speech at the UN General Assembly in September, in which he suggested taking the issue of Israeli settlements to the International Criminal Court led to declining the renewing of the operation of the Secretary of State.
The threat of closure has come as a plan to convince Palestinians to enter talks with Israel within 90 days, the official said.
"The Palestinian Authority received a letter from the State Department two days ago saying that the Secretary of State had not found enough reasons to keep the office open." the Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al-Malki said.
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