Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh sought to diminish the initial impact of the American peace-initiative in Bahrain, referring to it as merely “an intellectual exercise” that “has been fully and totally divorced from reality.” He said: “Bahrain was just simply a terrible exercise. I think it’s an economic workshop that has been fully and totally divorced from reality. It seems the authors of this paper that has been presented there, they didn’t link any of the projects, they didn’t link the text, they didn’t link the theme to reality. We haven’t seen in the paper any reference to (Israeli) occupation, to settlements, to Palestine, to two states, to 1967 borders, to Jerusalem and so on, and so for. So, this is just simply an intellectual exercise that I think it will not really materialize.”
Shtayyeh, who heads President Mahmoud Abbas’ government, also took the opportunity to warn of the growing economic distress across the territories that are under the control of the Palestinian Authority. According to the Palestinian Prime Minister, the current situation – in which the Palestinian leadership lost the majority of funds it receives from Israel and the United States after refusing to alter its malign behavior – cannot be preserved and will most likely lead to a violent escalation.
The PA Premier asked “Can we maintain this situation? I’m not sure about that. If the policeman has no petrol in his car, he will not be able to maintain law and order in the streets and that is where the problem is. So, the issue is whether we’ll be able to maintain the security situation, its something until now, everything is under control, I am not sure about tomorrow