Greenblatt: Peace plan is not only economic

Jason Greenblatt, the US Representative for International Negotiations, on Monday rejected reports claiming that the Trump administration’s peace plan for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) would only be economic in nature.

“To those falsely claiming our vision is just economic peace: we’ve been clear that the economic vision we present can’t exist without the political component, and the political component can’t succeed without the economic. Don’t believe rumors the plan is only economic. It’s not,” he wrote on Twitter.

Senior White House officials said on Sunday that the Trump administration is planning to release the economic component of its upcoming Middle East peace plan in late June, adding that it would break up the release of the much-anticipated plan.

The first half of the plan, dubbed the “Deal of the Century” by President Donald Trump, will be released at an international summit in Manama, Bahrain on June 25 to 26. The US is playing down the summit, however, and is calling the event a “workshop”.

The announcement that the plan would be released in two stages had led to speculation that it was solely economic in nature.

Meanwhile on Monday, the PA announced that it would boycott the economic conference.

PA “information minister” Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that the conference would be a meaningless meeting that was part of a meaningless plan.

“An economic agreement, with no political discussion on its side, will fail miserably, and we will not accept any proposal that does not include the basis for the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” he declared.

Talks continue regarding the details of the political portion of the peace plan, which is widely rumored not to include provision for the establishment of a Palestinian state – a massive departure from previous American-led peace efforts.

While the Trump administration has largely remained mum on the details of the upcoming Middle East peace plan, some senior officials have hinted that the plan indeed will not provide for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Last month, senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner emphasized that the new peace plan would be try something “different” with regards to the two-state solution.

“If people focus on the old traditional talking points we will never make progress. What we will put out is different.”

Last week, Greenblatt said that the peace plan would be released after the Ramadan and Shavuot holidays, which end on June 4 and 9 respectively. No prior mention was made of splitting the plan’s release.