The Palestinian leadership is now rethinking everything about the Deal of the Century and has sent signals to the White House in this regard, according to an Israeli report.
A senior official in Ramallah revealed that the Palestinian Authority and Washington have been exchanging messages to smooth things over and end PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ boycott against the Trump administration, Israel Hayom reported.
According to the official, a senior PA delegation led by head of the PA General Intelligence Service Majed Faraj is expected to fly to Washington soon to hold talks with White House officials.
Representatives for Abbas and US President Donald Trump have recently engaged in secret talks to hash out the details of the meeting.
“These discussions are strictly feelers although both sides have shown a positive approach and made progress toward possibly renewing relations,” the PA official told Israel Hayom.
The shift in stance is due to the PA’s dissatisfaction with Arab countries that attended the US-sponsored economic summit in Bahrain last month despite pleas from Abbas to boycott it, said the newspaper.
According to the official, Ramallah viewed their participation as “a betrayal of the Palestinian cause,” saying one of the goals of the summit was to pressure Abbas to end his boycott and it appears it was successful.
Another reason is that Ramallah expects the diplomatic aspect of the American peace plan to be unveiled following the snap September 17 election in Israel and the Palestinians want to have stabilized their relationship with Trump and his envoys by then.
The third reason, however, is the PA's poor economic situation that Ramallah is keen on addressing through renewed US financial aid.
Reports about secret messages emerged in wake of accusations between Palestinians and Americans over the boycott of the Manama "Peace to Prosperity" economic workshop. The meeting was aimed at revitalizing the economy in the Palestinian territories.
Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner accused the PA of failing to help its people after boycotting the conference. The Palestinians responded that they were not prepared to talk about the economic aspects of the American peace proposal before addressing political solutions.
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