For the second time in a week, Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday reiterated his hopes that the US peace plan, dubbed the “Deal of the Century”, will go to hell.
“I hope that the next Eid al-Fitr would come with us, the Palestinian people, having liberated our country from the Israeli occupation, established our independent state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and overcome the plots contrived against the Palestinian issue, including the Deal of the Century, which will all go to hell,” Abbas stated, according to the PA’s official news agency Wafa.
Abbas made this statement as he visited and laid a wreath of flowers on the grave of former PA chairman Yasser Arafat for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The PA chairman made similar remarks last week, when he said that whoever wants to solve the Palestinian issue needs to start with solving the political aspect of it, "and not try to sell illusions of billions of dollars".
"The ‘Deal of the Century’ or the deal of disgrace will go to hell and the economic project they are working on for next month will also go to hell ... we said we are not going to accept this meeting and its results because they are selling us illusions that will lead to nothing," stressed the PA chairman.
Abbas was referring to the “Peace to Prosperity” economic workshop, which will be held on June 25 and 26 in Bahrain. Senior White House officials said last week that the Trump administration is planning to release the economic component of its upcoming Middle East peace plan during that workshop.
The PA immediately announced that it would boycott the economic conference, with its “information minister” Nabil Abu Rudeineh saying that the conference would be a meaningless meeting that was part of a meaningless plan.
The PA has also rejected the US peace plan before it has even been unveiled, claiming it is biased in Israel’s favor.
