Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar recently met with Sigrid Kaag, the U.N. Middle East envoy and the world body’s senior coordinator for the Gaza Strip, to discuss the situation in Gaza.
The Jerusalem meeting on Wednesday focused on the possibility of reaching a truce deal with Hamas, Israel Defense Forces operations against terrorism in Judea and Samaria “and more,” Sa’ar’s office said.
Jerusalem’s top diplomat told Kaag the “distorted orders” of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which is investigating and has issued arrest warrants against the Jewish state’s leaders after complaints from the Palestinian Authority, have seriously harmed its credibility.
Sa’ar was said to have told Kaag that the Ramallah-based P.A. must stop payments to terrorists and their families, cease incitement against Israel and the Jewish people, as well as put an end to the “legal warfare” it continues to wage against Jerusalem at international courts.
“The Palestinian Authority’s patterns of action do not allow for trust in it,” Sa’ar told the U.N. envoy, according to a readout from his office.
Kaag, previously the Netherlands’ minister for foreign affairs, has served in multiple senior U.N. roles, including at the controversial U.N. Relief and Works Agency. She is married to Anis al-Qaq, a former senior Palestinian Authority official and envoy to Switzerland.
In Feb. 25 remarks to the Security Council, Kaag urged the international community to back Ramallah in “its reform efforts and its resumption of responsibilities” in Gaza, adding that P.A. forces should be “empowered to carry out their responsibilities in areas under their control.”
P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas “continues to implement agreed-upon reforms, including fiscal and public finance policy, governance and rule of law, for the investment climate and basic service provision,” she said.
In June, Kaag told the Netherlands’ NOS broadcaster that she planned to relocate her residence and offices to the war-torn Strip.
A spokesperson for her office told JNS in August she had yet to make the move, saying she was “based in Amman, Jordan, with an office in Gaza.”
Kaag “uses her extensive network to engage with key governments and other stakeholders at the highest political level” to coordinate aid and reconstruction efforts amid the war against Hamas, the statement said.
