The White House announced Friday morning that US President Joe Biden has appointed Robert Malley as a special envoy for Iran, in a move that angered Israel and its allies in Washington.
Mali was an advisor to former President Barack Obama on Iran affairs, and a key member of the team that negotiated the nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the major powers in 2015, and was a member of the US negotiating delegation in the 1990s in the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.
It is noteworthy that Mali was the only member of the American negotiating team in the tripartite Camp David negotiations between the United States, the Palestinian Authority and Israel (summer 2000) who blamed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the time instead of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, which put him in the crosshairs of attacks before. Israel and its allies in Washington.
Mali is facing harsh criticism and a smear campaign from the Israeli lobby groups and many Republican lawmakers in the US Congress, both sheikhs and representatives loyal to Israel, and who oppose an agreement with Iran when his name was first reported as a leading candidate for the position, on the pretext that he might be lenient with Iran and strict with Israel, These accusations were also tried by the Israeli lobby in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in the 1990s.
Experts expected Mali - an American Jew of Egyptian descent - would choose the site when he announced last summer that Biden´s campaign team had included him as an informal adviser.
Mali held many senior positions in the Democratic administrations of Obama and former President Bill Clinton, and his attention has focused on policymaking in the Middle East and the Gulf.
Mali will be at the forefront of Biden´s efforts to find a way to deal with Iran after years of deteriorating relations under former President Donald Trump, who withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and re-imposed stifling economic sanctions on Tehran, despite opposition from his European allies.
President Biden had promised to resume dialogue with Tehran and return to the agreement, provided the latter adheres to its obligations, considering that preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is the most important priority.
And Israel exercised intense pressure on the Biden administration, directly, as through the various Israeli lobby organizations and its supporters in the US Congress to block Mali´s appointment, accusing him of "an extremist leftist with consultative relations with the Palestinian Authority, and he gives advice to the Palestinians to resort to peaceful resistance against Israel," according to a newspaper. Right-wing "Israel Today".
The newspaper says: "Mali believes that addressing the main pillars of the US administration´s policy towards the Palestinians should aim to create an Israeli audience that understands the consequences of the continued occupation, and to make clear to the Israeli public that the United States paid the price for its control over Judea and Samaria."
The newspaper adds: "On the other hand, the Palestinian people and their leadership are calling to challenge the status quo by non-violent means and in accordance with international law. The main thing is to reverse those trends on the ground, in the political and legal spheres, which, as he put it, tore the diplomatic scene to pieces and cannot To guarantee the Palestinians the most basic human rights. "
