Fatah: U.S. peace plan is bribe to kill our national aspirations
Abbas's leading faction in PA urges Arab states to reinstate 2002 peace initiative and finance it with their own money in place of the American scheme, says economic summit useless without political plan
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction on Saturday rejected outright the first part of U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan shortly after it became public, saying that it constituted little more than a bribe for the Palestinian people to abandon their hopes of an independent state.
"The American administration is suggesting a plan that is based on Arab money, to kill Palestinian national aspirations," Fatah said, referring to the American plan that includes $50 billion in Palestinian aid to be raised from Arab states.
The comments came as the Fatah faction in the Palestinian Authority met in Ramallah. Abbas also vowed that the Palestinians would not participate in the upcoming Bahrain workshop on the Palestinian economy, saying there cannot be an economic discussion before the foundations are laid for a political solution to the conflict.
Fatah also urged the Arab states to reject what it said was an "insulting attempt at bribery" by the U.S. and urged those Arab states to use their money to fund their own 2002 peace initiative instead.
The Arab peace plan, also known as the Saudi Peace Initiative, seeks an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Israeli withdrawals from all territories captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, a "just" solution to the Palestinian refugee problem that would be agreed upon in accordance with UN Resolution 194 and the acceptance of a sovereign independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Fatah's Islamist rivals Hamas also attacked the plan, saying the U.S. administration was persisting with its delusion that the Palestinian people would forgo their rights and their holy sites in exchange for money and economic projects.
Fatah has called for demonstrations in the West Bank to coincide with the Bahrain workshop, which begins on June 25.
