Palestine's Abbas: Political solution must come first

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said he refused to participate in the U.S.-led economic conference in Bahrain due to his belief that the political solution to Middle East conflict must come first before the economic one.

During the Manama conference, Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior White House adviser and son-in-law, asserted that the U.S. officials have prepared "the largest economic plan for Palestinians and the Middle East."

Speaking at a joint press conference with his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Pinera, Abbas renewed his rejection to the U.S. plan.

Reiterating Palestine’s stance towards the conference in Manama, Abbas said: “The national rights are not real estate that is bought and sold”.

Last week, the White House called for $50 billion in investments for Palestine and neighboring Arab states as part of the U.S. plan, which calls for increased infrastructure projects between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with a stated goal to "empower" the Palestinian people.

"The decisions taken by the United States have proved its ineligibility to take care alone of the peace process,” Abbas said.

“It [the U.S.] has encouraged the occupation government to consider Jerusalem as its capital, to annex the Golan Heights and to hint at the annexation of parts of the [occupied] West Bank in an attempt to impose a fait accompli by force, the thing that we and the whole world have rejected," he added.

Abbas expressed his government’s readiness to cooperate with "a multilateral international mechanism to take care of negotiations [between the Palestinian and Israeli officials], build Palestinian institutions and empower the [Palestinian] economy”.

“The [Israeli] occupation violates the character and identity of the city of East Jerusalem, the capital of our state, which we want it to be an open city for believers and followers of the divine religions, to visit and worship," he said.

‫For his part, the Chilean president affirmed his country's support for the establishment of a free and sovereign Palestinian state with recognized and secure borders.

"This is what the Palestinian and Israeli people want. The only way to reach a just and comprehensive peace is through a two-state solution," he said.

On Thursday, Pinera arrived in Ramallah after visiting Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, the Chilean president -- accompanied by officials from Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Fadi al-Hadami and officials from the Religious Endowment Ministry -- visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Palestinian-Israeli negotiations collapsed in April 2014 after Israeli government refused to stop settlement activity, accept a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders, and release Palestinian detainees from Israeli jails.