US seeking to replace Mideast peace process with imposed incentives, Russia says

Russia has censured the forthcoming US-led conference in Bahrain in support of President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal for “peace” between the Israeli regime and Palestinians, dubbed “the deal of the century,” describing it as a Washington's attempt to substitute the so-called Middle East peace process with imposed economic incentives.

News ID: 445139

Date: 29 May 2019 - 09:06

RNA - “It is all about another US attempt to shift the priorities of the regional agenda and impose an ' alternative vision' of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement. The persistent desire to replace the task of achieving a comprehensive political solution with a package of the so-called 'economic incentives' while eroding the principle of the (so-called) two-state solution is causing deep concern,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Chinese Ambassador to Palestine Guo Wei said his country, along with Russia, would not participate in the Manama conference scheduled for June 25-26 .

“Boycotting the Bahrain conference comes within the framework of a bilateral Russian-Chinese agreement not to participate in it,” Wei was quoted as saying by Palestine's official WAFA news agency at a meeting in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah with Nabil Shaath, a top adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Hamas resistance movement have called for an Arab boycott of the Bahrain confab.

Hamas, in a statement issued on May 20, also called on Arab countries to provide the Palestinian people with every support to confront and frustrate the US “deal of the century.”“We are following with great concern the American announcement about holding an economic workshop next June in the Bahraini capital of Manama,” Hamas said, describing it as the first American confab in support of the so-called deal of the century.

The movement also denounced any Arab participation in adopting and executing the deal, saying any attendance in the American-led Bahrain conference would be considered a deviation from Arab and Islamic values.

Trump’s “peace plan” has already been dismissed by Palestinian authorities ahead of its unveiling at the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan and the formation of the new Israeli cabinet, most likely in June.

Speaking in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on April 16, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh lashed out at the initiative, asserting it was “born dead.”

Shtayyeh noted that negotiations with the US were useless in the wake of the country’s relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds, which Palestinians consider the capital city of their future state.

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