PA spokesman: We thwarted the US peace plan

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, boasted on Tuesday that the PA had thwarted the US peace plan.

In a statement quoted by the PA’s official Wafa news agency, Abu Rudeineh said that the Palestinian national stand, the international consensus and the insistence on the independent decision have once again thwarted all “conspiracies” against the Palestinian cause and preserved Jerusalem, its holy places and the Palestinian identity.

“Any meeting, whether in Bahrain or elsewhere and without the legitimate Palestinian endorsement, proves that Washington cannot and will not succeed on its own in achieving anything,” he said, according to Wafa.

Abu Rudeineh further claimed that “the position of the President and the Palestinian leadership from the constants, particularly Jerusalem, the prisoners and the Palestinian identity, will foil any plot, or workshop or meeting.”

He was referring to the upcoming economic workshop in Bahrain, during which the Trump administration is planning to release the economic component of its Middle East peace plan.

The PA announced it would boycott the economic conference almost immediately after it was announced, saying that the conference would be a meaningless meeting that was part of a meaningless plan.

“The address is the President, his people and the correct political position that establishes for any settlement or any just peace based on national and international consensus,” said Abu Rudeineh on Tuesday. “The choice of our people is clear and firm and will defeat any conspiracy.”

Despite the PA’s decision to boycott the conference, several Arab countries will attend, including Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.