'Deal of Century' to fail just like US-led conference in Bahrain

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Washington's so-called "Deal of the Century" for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will fail just like the US-led "Peace to Prosperity" conference that took place in Bahrain last week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday.

"Deal of the Century has ended and will fail just like the Manama forum, which began with [White House Senior Adviser Jared] Kushner's speech and also ended with his speech," Abbas stated, as quoted by the WAFA news agency.

He also stressed that Israel had been working on destroying the Oslo accords, inked in the 1990s with an aim to achieve a peace treaty based on the Palestinians' right to self-determination, from the very moment they had been signed.

The president noted that Palestine would not respect the agreements "if Israel does not abide" by them as well.

Kushner presented the economical part of the US plan for Israeli-Palestinian conflict settlement during a two-day conference in Bahrain's capital Manama last week. Palestinians have boycotted the meeting, saying it was nothing but an attempt to buy them off. The US key proposal was to invest money in foreign territories hosting Palestinian refugees so that they never want to come back to their homeland in the future. The plan included no direct suggestions on how Israeli-Palestinian dialogue could be relaunched.

While Israeli-Palestinian relations have long been tense, the conflict escalated in late March when Palestinians launched weekly protests along the Gaza border, which resulted in violent clashes between Israeli security forces and protesters.

For decades, Israel has been in conflict with the Palestinians, who have been seeking diplomatic recognition for their independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

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