US Mideast peace envoy Jason Greenblatt blasts the Palestinian leadership for skipping next week’s economic conference in Bahrain, calling it the “opportunity of a generation.”
The Palestinians have dismissed the long-awaited US peace plan for the region, and said they will not attend the Bahrain summit, rejecting it as heavily biased in favor of Israel.
In a CNN op-ed, Greenblatt says the long-awaited proposal could “unlock the incredible potential of the Palestinian and regional economy.”
“The Palestinian leadership portrays participation in the workshop as treasonous. That is preposterous,” he says.
Greenblatt directly addresses senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, calling his criticism of US summit as “off base completely.”
US President’s peace process envoy Jason Greenblatt, left, meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the President’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, March 14, 2017. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
“Perhaps Saeb knows he will never get the peace deal he has promised over the decades he has worked on this file, and rather than admit that, and instead of being willing to work to achieve a realistic, implementable deal which can lead to great things for the Palestinians, he wants to give up before he even starts,” he says. “How sad for the Palestinians.”
Earlier, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would attend the summit set for June 25 and 26 in Bahrain. Egypt, Morocco and Jordan have also agreed to attend the unveiling of peace plan’s economic component.
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