China and Russia will not participate in a US-led conference set to take place in Bahrain next month to promote what they call an innovate plan or ‘Deal of the Century’ to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
China’s Ambassador to Palestine Guo Wei informed Nabil Shaath, the foreign policy adviser to the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas, that Beijing and Moscow had made an agreement to boycott the event, the Palestine Chronicle non-profit news and information organization reported on Monday. The meeting reportedly took place in the city of Ramallah in Israel-occupied West Bank.
“Boycotting the Bahrain conference comes within the framework of a bilateral Russian-Chinese agreement not to participate in it,” the Palestinian Wafa news agency quoted Wei as saying.
Wei stressed Beijing’s position “in support of the Palestinian cause and people, including their right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state of Palestine within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as its capital,” the agency added.
Israel claimed existence following a Western-backed war against Arab states in 1948. In 1967, it occupied the West Bank and other chunks of Arab land during fresh warfare. Washington has kept the plan, which President Donald Trump has hailed as “the deal of the century,” under wraps.
Early last week, the US announced plans to hold the conference in the Bahraini capital Manama, where Trump administration officials are expected to unveil economic aspects of the plan.
Russia Rejects Deal of Century Plan
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister warned that Donald Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century” in the Middle-East will “ruin everything” gained from previous efforts and will fail to guarantee a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.
TRUMP WORKING ON “DEAL OF THE CENTURY” – ISRAEL-PALESTINE PEACE PROCESS
Washington has been promising for more than two years to offer some sort of deal of the century. But current information gives us reason to believe that the future deal of the century would ruin everything that has been done so far: Russian FM
Sergei Lavrov’s comments were made on the second day of the third edition of the intra-Palestinian conference in Moscow aimed at unifying 12 different Palestinian movements and organizations, including the West Bank-based Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The so-called Deal of the Century, a backchannel plan to reach a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, was proposed by the US administration in late 2017. Although the plan has not been released, leaks signal it will consist of the same tried-and-failed ideas, according to Russia.
Palestinians believe that the deal suggests building their own Jerusalem al-Quds from areas surrounding the existing city and forgetting about the historical place. They also believe that the US-drafted plan calls for keeping borders and security under Israeli control, while it keeps Israeli settlements’ final borders to be discussed in later negotiations.
Israel lays claim to the whole Jerusalem al-Quds, but the international community views the city’s eastern sector as an occupied territory and Palestinians consider it as the capital of their future state.
Trump further darkened the prospects of the establishment of a Palestinian state back in December when he recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and ordered the US embassy to be relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds, a move that infuriated Palestinians and triggered numerous protests. The Russian diplomat also stressed that the proposal does not include the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
He also lambasted Washington for its efforts “to promote unilateral approaches” toward the so-called peace process in the region, and it’s forcibly imposing of “new solutions to the (Israeli) settlement” construction issue.
Lavrov also said Russia considers “an absolute majority to re-establish Palestinian unity as soon as possible.”
Trump has time and again called his yet-to-be-released plan as “The Deal of the Century,” but it is coincidentally the title of a 1983 comedy, which features a bunch of hapless arms dealers competing to sell a weapon, called the Peacemaker, to a South American dictator.
