By: IBRAHIM Jaafar
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas turned down an offer of $10 billion from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman if he would accept the forthcoming U.S. Middle east peace plan, according to the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar on Tuesday.
After briefing Abbas on the contents of the American proposals, Salman asked Abbas what his price would be:
“What is the annual budget of your entourage?” the prince asked.
Abbas replied: “I’m not a prince to have my own entourage.”
Salman: “How much money does the Palestinian Authority and its ministers and employees need?”
Abbas replied that the Palestinians need $1 billion each year, the report said.
“I will give you $10 billion over 10 years if you accept the deal of the century,” Salman was quoted as telling Abbas.
Abbas, however, said no, because if he did it would “mean the end of my political life.”
The newspaper quoted the Jordanian envoy’s report as saying that the Saudi crown prince also told Abbas that the Trump administration was prepared to give the Palestinians the land which they already live on.
Persisting, Salman reportedly told Abbas that Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries would help them expand their control over Areas B and C in Yehudah and Shomron, and provide financial support for projects to boost their failing economy. “Saudi Arabia will support the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) with more than $4 billion,” Salman reportedly told Abbas.
Abbas explained the political realities that constrain him, saying he could not make concessions regarding the settlements, the two-state solution and Yerushalayim, and that any pressure will push the Palestinian Authority, to dissolve its institutions and hold Israel responsible for managing the affairs of the Palestinians [in the West Bank] and that it would be "the end of his political life".
In another report by the Jordanian envoy, Abbas’s adviser, Mahmoud Habbash, is said to have criticized Egypt for its “inexperience” and for having too much confidence in the Americans, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Habbash claimed that the Saudi message to Abbas was that he should accept Trump’s upcoming plan, the report said.
On 23 April, senior US presidential advisor, Jared Kushner, said that the American peace proposal would be unveiled after the Muslim month of fasting which ends in early June. “We’re going to wait until after Ramadan now,” he said.
Bin Salman and the Saudi regime are eager to please their masters, America, by bribing the P.A. to accept the deal which would spell the end of Palestine once and for all. The P.A.'s reluctance to sell the blessed land should not be applauded without critique as their unwillingness is not on the basis that it is prohibited in Islam, but rather that it will bring an end to the P.A. itself.