By Mahmut Geldi
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AA) - The back-channel U.S. Mideast peace plan known as "deal of the century" amounts to offering a dirty "bribe" to the region, according to the former chief of Palestinian Hamas resistance group.
In a statement, Khaled Meshaal said the Palestinians will not allow the "bribe" to go forward.
“Deal of the century is suspicious and poisonous and it is a bribe for the region by Arabs’ money with main aim to sell Palestine and Jerusalem,” he said.
Reiterating the Palestinians' red lines, he said their "right to resist, the end of the Israeli occupation, and the release of inmates from Israeli prisons" are strictly non-negotiable.
Meshaal also said Palestinians reject the “deal of the century” conference in Bahrain which began Tuesday.
During the two-day event in the Bahraini capital, Manama, U.S. officials are expected to unveil the economic portion of their plan.
Palestinians have boycotted the meeting.
Palestinian-Israeli negotiations collapsed in April 2014 after Israel refused to stop settlement activity, accept a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders, and release Palestinian detainees from jail.
*Writing by Gozde Bayar