Senior Palestinian Official Dismisses US Peace Plan as a ‘Dead End’

“American ideas or deals that bypass the Palestinian leadership’s position on Jerusalem, statehood and refugees will only lead to a dead end,” Abu Rudeineh said of Trump’s peace plan. 

By: United with Israel Staff

A senior Palestinian official rejected the American peace plan even before seeing it.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas, said on Saturday that “American ideas or deals that bypass the Palestinian leadership’s position on Jerusalem, statehood and refugees will only lead to a dead end.”

Reacting to the current tour of the region by US Senior Advisor Jared Kushner and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt and their meetings with Arab and Israeli officials in an effort to advance a comprehensive diplomatic solution, Abu Rudeineh said that “the American delegation should abandon the illusion that creating false facts and falsifying history are going to help it sell those illusions.”

He said that “the right address for achieving a just and lasting peace that cannot be bypassed, neither regionally nor internationally, is the Palestinian decision-maker represented by President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership supported by the legitimate international community and the Arabs, who made this clear to the American delegation.”

“Despite the burden of regional issues, there are things that cannot be weighed with gold and humanitarian aid, or solutions that try to cut from a more-than-100-year-old historical conflict,” he added.

On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Kushner and Greenblatt in Jerusalem.

“The teams discussed advancing the peace process, regional developments, and the security and humanitarian situation in Gaza,” a statement by Netanyahu’s office said.

After visits to Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, Greenblatt and Kushner were expected to provide details of the US-sponsored peace plan to the Israeli premier, with an eye to jump-starting negotiations with the PA, which has maintained a boycott of the Trump administration since its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the subsequent US embassy move.

While Abbas has repeatedly rejected Washington’s role in the peace process since the Trump Administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, King Abdullah II of Jordan met with Kushner and Greenblatt on Wednesday, declaring that the “US has an important role” in future talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Greenblatt: ‘The [Palestinian] People Deserve Better’

In addition to the peace plan, Greenblatt and Kushner also reportedly had the situation in Gaza on their agenda, as the coastal enclave remains in the grip of the Hamas terrorist organization, which misappropriates humanitarian aid for terror attacks and uses civilians as human shields in its operations.

On Thursday, Greenblatt blasted Hamas on Twitter in a post translated into Arabic and Hebrew, slamming “murderous Hamas leaders [who] continue to squander the resources of Gaza.”

“The [Palestinian] people deserve better,” he concluded.

Greenblatt was also critical of the PA, which has refused to meet with the US delegation during its visit to Israel.

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