Erekat: Would Arab states allow others to decide their fate? Why should Palestinians?

Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) commented on the participation of Arab countries in the so-called Bahrain Workshop sponsored by the United States, yesterday. The workshop is purportedly intended to launch Trump’s peace plan known as the Deal of the Century.

Erekat tweeted: “Can any country, Arab or other, accept a conference or a workshop to be invited for and attended by others without its knowledge, absence, and non-acceptance?” referring to the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to attend the workshop.

Can any country Arab or other ,accepts a conference or a workshop to be invited for and attended by others without its knowledge absence،and non acceptance?هل يمكن لأي دولة عربية او غيرها قبول مؤتمر او ورشة عمل يتم الدعوة لها وحضورها من اخرين دون علمها وبغيابها ودون موافقتها ؟

— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) May 27, 2019

Erekat’s tweet came a day after the Executive Committee of the PLO declared its rejection of the Manama conference, calling on all countries and political as well as economic entities invited to the workshop to “respect the position of the Palestinian consensus and not to take part in the conference.”

The Executive Committee explained in a statement that “the goal pursued by the US administration by organizing this workshop is to initiate the implementation of the deal of century, at the economic level, after making wide steps regarding the political enforcement of the deal, through a number of resolutions and measures that would endorse the state of occupation and cancel the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”

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