The White House has announced that the US will hold an international economic “workshop” in Bahrain in late June, seeking to encourage investment in the Palestinian territories. The conference, to be managed by Jared Kushner, the presidential son-in-law could be important in some ways because it is directly related to the Palestinian issue and the future of the Middle East. With this in mind, the question now is: what are the goals of this conference and what is the general agenda of its organizers?

Considering the importance of this issue, West Asian affairs expert Hassan Hanizadeh discussed the reasons and goals for holding the event in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations.

Q: What is your assessment of the Manama conference and what is the aim of this meeting?

The US-sponsored conference called “Peace to Prosperity”, is considered a complement to the practical implementation of the “Deal of the Century”. Given that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain, the three Persian Gulf Cooperation Council member states have made extensive efforts to help implement the “Deal of the Century”, and since Bahrain has established open relations with the Zionist regime, the Manama conference will be held with two goals. First, to remove obstacles on the way of Arab-Israeli relations; In other words, the conference will provide the preliminaries of the establishment of relations between the Arab states in political and economic spheres.

The event, in fact, aims at the implementation of the new Middle East scheme of Shimon Peres, the former head of the Zionist regime. According to Shimon Peres new Middle East plan, the volume of trade and economic exchanges between the six Persian Gulf Cooperation Council states and the Zionist regime will amount to $70 billion a year by 2020. So part of the “Peace to Prosperity” economic conference in Bahrain is to monitor implementation of the new Middle East scheme. Another issue on the agenda of the conference is the operation of the “Deal of the Century”. The deal is to be implemented in 2019 in cooperation with the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council states under the guidance and management of the United States and the Zionist regime. Because US President Donald Trump needs a propaganda campaign to win the 2020 US presidential election, and therefore Trump is pushing for the implementation of the plan.

Q: What are the Arab countries seeking to gain by supporting this scheme?

The plan to forge economic cooperation between the PGCC and the Zionist regime is pursued with a number of goals: First, to harm the Iranian economy and the so-called political isolation of Tehran in the sense that the Persian Gulf will become a market for Israeli goods in the future to prevent exports of Iranian goods to the Persian Gulf.

Meanwhile, the six countries, in particular, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, have come to the conclusion that they must use Israeli political and military capabilities to protect themselves. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain not only have not helped the Palestinian people in recent years, but they have earmarked $80 million to the Zionist regime to help the Likud Party, especially Benjamin Netanyahu, to win the recent Israeli election.

Q: What are the strategic effects of these measures by Arabs and their support for Israel and America?

The Arab countries, especially the Persian Gulf states, are not required to support the Palestinian people. Many officials from the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have explicitly stated that the Palestinian issue and political and financial assistance to Palestine have reduced the development of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council and, therefore, they should not spend any more money in support of the Palestinian people. But in reality, these measures are tantamount to compromising the rights of the Palestinian people and unquestionably a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

Q: What scenarios can be foreseen for the future of these developments, including the Deal of the Century?

Arab countries are not expected to take action to stop the execution of the Deal of the Century. The Arab states are now divided into three parts as regards their position concerning the Deal of the Century; countries that sponsor the plan, such as Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Bahrain; relatively neutral states, such as Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Sudan, which have little involvement in this issue; among the Arab countries only Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen are opposed to this plan.

Regarding the approach of the Palestinian people, all Islamic and national political movements and even the PA are opposed to the implementation of this plan and will confront it. Therefore, the Palestinian people and Jihadist movements will strongly confront this plan, even if this opposition leads to physical conflict between the Palestinians and the Israeli regime.