Dubai - In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has said the US peace plan is destined to fail. On the Bahrain Peace and Prosperity Conference, he said “the whole workshop is totally misleading and it’s just simply an intellectual exercise”.
Shtayyeh said Palestine needs full control of its territories and borders: “We are not looking to live [in] five-star hotels under occupation, and so on. That is not what we want. Palestinians are united behind one single thing: End occupation, we want an independent state, and we are ready to live in a two-state situation.”
Asked why the Palestinians would boycott an event that is an opportunity to give billions of dollars to them, he said: “The figures are so exaggerated to the extent that we don’t believe it, first. Secondly, this economic workshop is totally diverse from any political dimension. The economic problem in Palestinian has nothing to do with the economic policy of anybody. The economic problem here or financial crisis that we are in, it has to do with the Israeli measures that has been imposed on the Palestinian economy, on one hand, and the financial war that has been declared by this US administration... So, the issue is really not an economic issue. The Palestinians are hoping for independence, sovereign state, end of occupation. “
He said there was no point having the cart before the horse. And that promises and ideas of money and investment will not work outside of political framework. “What will be presented at the conference has nothing to do with reality, it has nothing to do with [colonies], it has nothing to do with occupation, it has nothing to do with the Palestinians not having any access to their land or their water. Palestinians have no control over their resources. The best part of it will be only the coffee break.
He added: “ The issue is whether there is a serious determination about solving the problem. This workshop is about -- is for me, a laundry, a political laundry for [colonies] and a legitimisation of the occupation. Palestinians are not looking for that. The Palestinians, they consider [colonies] illegal. The Palestinians, they want to get rid of occupation. And we are ready to engage with any political proposal that has to do with international law, that has to do with ending occupation, that has to do with allowing the Palestinians, for once, to live in peace and harmony in an independent sovereign Palestinian State.
He said the number of colonists in the Occupied Territories during the Madrid peace talks was 145,000 and “today, it is 711,000”.
