Fatah says Saudi, Egypt, UAE pressuring Palestine to accept Trump’s deal

Some Arab states are exerting “immense pressure” on Palestinians to accept US President Donald Trump’s controversial Middle East plan, dubbed “the deal of the century,” a senior Fatah official says.

“Some Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, are very interested in the deal of the century,” the unnamed official told Al-Khaleej Online news.

“They are using all means, including political and financial blackmail, to force the Palestinians to accept the deal of the century despite all the dangers it poses to the Palestinian cause.”

Trump’s so-called “peace plan” is expected to be unveiled at the end of the holy month of Ramadan in June.

The Fatah official stressed that the Palestinian leadership would not submit to any Arab, American or even Israeli pressure to accept the deal.

The plan formulated by Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is likely to “stop short of ensuring a separate, fully sovereign Palestinian state,” The Washington Post said last week.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.

Outgoing French Ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud, has told US magazine The Atlantic that the deal is 99% doomed to fail.

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Addressing an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the Trump’s administration has nothing to offer Palestinians.

“They want to fool us. They have nothing to offer us. Even if they want to offer something, it will be worse than anything else,” he said.

Abbas hinted that Palestinians were close to making “decisive decisions” in reaction to the Israeli and American measures.

Top Palestinian decision-making bodies have called for “revising” ties with Israel, revoking Palestinian recognition of Israel and suspending all agreements between the two sides.

Abbas called on Arab states to provide financial and political support to Palestinians, saying, “We are facing difficult challenges.”

The Palestinian Authority is facing steep aid cuts after Trump slashed hundreds of millions of dollars to humanitarian organizations helping Palestinians. 

Israel has also decided to deduct millions of shekels from tax and tariff revenues it collects on behalf of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Referring to Trump’s decision to recognize "Israeli sovereignty" over Syria's Golan Heights, Abbas stressed that Palestinians reject the move. 

“We don’t accept the annexation of the Golan, al-Quds and the Sheba’a Farms,” he said, referring to a small strip of land at the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Golan, which was occupied by Israeli during the 1967 war.

“These are all Arab territories. They are all occupied territories, and Israel needs to quickly withdraw from them.”

Abbas was in Cairo to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and discuss the latest developments in Palestine.

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