Qais Abu Samra
20 May 2019•Update: 21 May 2019
RAMALLAH
The decades-long Palestine-Israel dispute can only be resolved through a political -- rather than economic -- solution, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Shtayyeh said Monday.
“Economic issues should be addressed as an outcome of a political solution,” Shtayyeh said at a weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah.
“Palestinians don’t only want better living conditions,” he said. “They want the [Israeli] occupation to end.”
On Sunday, the U.S. announced plans to hold a major conference in Bahrain next month, where Trump administration officials will unveil the economic aspects of the so-called “Deal of the Century”, a backchannel Middle East peace plan.
Shtayyeh, for his part, decried the announcement, saying Ramallah had not been consulted about the upcoming meeting “either in terms of its expected outcome or its timing”.
“The financial crisis now plaguing the [Ramallah-based] Palestinian Authority is the result of an ongoing financial war aimed at blackmailing us politically,” the prime minister said.
“But we will not be subject to extortion and will not change our longstanding political positions,” he added.
Slated for June 25 and 26, the Bahrain conference will reportedly be headed up by senior White House adviser (and U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law) Jared Kushner and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt.
It is also expected to be attended by a host of finance officials and business leaders from several countries.
According to the White House, the meeting is aimed at attracting investment to the region -- especially the West Bank and Gaza -- within the context of the U.S. peace plan, full details of which are expected to be unveiled sometime next month.
Since the Trump administration recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in late 2017, the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah has refused to take part in U.S. peacemaking efforts.
