Arab politicians and commentators greeted Trump's Middle East $50 billion economic vision with a mixture of derision and exasperation, although some in the Gulf called for it to be given a chance
1 / 2Jared Kushner speaks during an interview with ReutersBy Stephen Kalin, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Mohamed Abdellah
"We don't need the Bahrain meeting to build our country, we need peace, and the sequence of -- economic revival followed by peace is unrealistic and an illusion," Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara said on Sunday. While the precise outline of the political plan has been shrouded in secrecy, officials briefed on it say Kushner has jettisoned the two-state solution - the long-standing worldwide formula that envisages an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.The PLO has dismissed Kushner's plans as"all abstract promises," insisting that only a political solution will solve the problem.
"This is an unbalanced approach: it assumes the Palestinians are the more vulnerable side and they are the ones who can succumb to pressure more easily," he said."This is a major setback for the whole region." Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which wields significant influence over the government, has previously called the plan “an historic crime” that must be stopped.
While Riyadh and its allies have welcomed Trump's harder line against Tehran, which has cast itself as the guardian of Palestinian rights, critics accuse Saudi Arabia, the custodian of Islam's holiest places, of abandoning the Palestinians.
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