THE Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) said today that there could be no peace talks while the US legitimises Israel’s claim to Jerusalem.

PLO secretary-general Saeb Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio the Fatah-led government would refuse peace talks with Israel until US President Donald Trump reverses his unilateral recognition of the city as Israel’s capital.

“The Palestinian leadership will not accept any offers for negotiations unless the American decision on Jerusalem is annulled,” he said.

Mr Erekat said Mr Trump’s December 6 speech declaring his intention to move the US embassy there had taken Palestine’s claim to occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state off the table.

The PLO leader insisted Palestine was not seeking confrontation with the US, but Mr Trump had created that conflict.

“Our peace will not be at any price,” he said.

Mr Erekat said Sunday’s PLO central council meeting — to which representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been invited — would debate Palestine’s stance towards occupying Israel and and how to oppose the US declaration on Jerusalem.

He accused the White House of seeking to impose its will on the Palestinian leadership through recent threats to cut aid and close down UN aid agency for Palestine UNRWA.

Yesterday UNRWA spokesman Sami Mushasha insisted its mandate came from the UN general assembly.

That was after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agency “perpetuates the problem of the Palestinian refugees” and “the so-called ‘right of return,’ with the aim of eliminating the state of Israel — and therefore UNRWA must disappear.”

Mr Mushasha said: “What perpetuates the problem of Palestinian refugees is failure of the parties to deal with this issue” through peace talks.

Also yesterday US Vice-President Mike Pence’s office said he would visit Israel, Jordan and Egypt later this month — but not occupied Palestine.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas instructed his country’s diplomatic delegation in Washington to intensify efforts to raise awareness of the Palestinian cause there and influence public opinion.

The US currently gives Israel $4 billion (£3bn) a year in military aid.

Yesterday Israeli occupation troops used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a protest against the US decisions in al-Bireh, just east of the Palestinian capital of Ramallah in the West Bank.

And a young Palestinian man was injured when troops manning guard towers on the containment fence around Gaza fired live bullets at protesters.