US, Palestine Did Not Discuss Preparations For Manama Conference - Palestinian Official

The United States held no consultations with Palestine regarding the US-led economic conference in Manama, intended as the first step in President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Middle East, the secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, told Sputnik on Monday

GAZA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2019) The United States held no consultations with Palestine regarding the US-led economic conference in Manama, intended as the first step in President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Middle East, the secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, told Sputnik on Monday.

The US-brokered conference, touted as the "deal of the century" by Trump and aimed at gathering foreign state and business leaders to tackle the economic aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, is scheduled to take place from June 25-26 in the Bahraini capital of Manama.

"There were no consultations with us regarding the conference in Manama," Erekat said.

According to him, Washington has undermined the political dimension of the "deal of the century" by naming Jerusalem the capital of Israel, ignoring the refugee problem, accepting Israel's construction of settlements in the West Bank as legitimate and refusing to recognize the Palestinian territories as occupied.

"The solution to the Palestinian problem lies in the end of occupation and declaration of independence upon the establishment of the Palestinian state with the capital in East Jerusalem," he added.

Palestine rejected Washington's unilateral mediation efforts in the peace process with Israel after the United States relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May 2018. Erekat, a long-time head of the Palestinian delegation at peace talks with Israel, has repeatedly challenged the US neutrality in the dispute and spoken in favor of a multilateral mediation format instead.