Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal for “peace” between the Israeli regime and Palestinians, dubbed “the deal of the century,” will fail just like a recently concluded US-backed economic workshop in Bahrain.
“We said no to the deal of the century and will not accept it. I will not dare to gamble with the interest of my people and I will not give up on their rights. We do not accept (the United States of) America alone as a mediator. Since Oslo Accords, we have not made any progress at the hands of Americans. If we have made some progress, America has not been a partner in it,” Abbas said during a meeting with representatives, senior editors and reporters of Palestinian and Arab media organizations in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday evening.
He stressed that the Palestinian leadership will not deal with the US administration unless it reverses all decisions it has already taken against the Palestinian issue.
“The Palestinian side wants to implement the international resolutions related to resolving the Palestinian cause. Individual and unilateral decisions do not apply to us and we cannot accept them. If they want to impose the status quo by force, we have the strength of righteousness, which we always adhered to,” Abbas underlined.
The Palestinian president further noted that Israeli officials have spared no effort to destroy the Oslo Accords ever since they were signed in 1993, accusing the Tel Aviv regime of canceling all related agreements with the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas emphasized that the Palestinians intend to get to the United Nations Security Council “in order to renew the bid for forming a mechanism and a committee to run the negotiations with Israel based on the international resolutions.”
Asked about the economic workshop held in Bahrain late last month, Abbas said, “We said political solution first and then the economic solution, simply because we need dignity, security and an independent state for our people.”
The so-called Peace to Prosperity workshop opened in Bahrain on June 25 and ran through June 26.
The Palestinian leadership boycotted the meeting, leading critics to question the credibility of the event.
Palestinians staged rallies across the occupied West Bank in protest against the conference and participation of Arab delegations.
Demonstrators gathered in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin, al-Khalil, Tulkarm, Salfit, Qalqilyah and Ariha, while a general strike was staged in the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip.
“Any plan that includes the liquidation of the Palestinian cause … is rejected by the Palestinians and is not debatable or negotiable,” Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive committee, said in a statement.