‘No other goal’

Bahrain’s Foreign Minister yesterday affirmed that the international economic workshop ‘Peace for Prosperity’ scheduled next month with the US in the Kingdom has “no other goal” other-than serving the Palestinian cause. The workshop has “no other goal” than to help Palestinian people and that Bahrain stands in the Palestinian issue is “firm and solid,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa.

This minister was holding a telephonic conversation with the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov. “Bahrain has been and will continue to support the rights of the brotherly Palestinian people to restore their legitimate rights and establish their independent state,” the Minister told the UN envoy.

The conference which the United States co-hosts with Bahrain from June 25-26 focuses on the economic aspects of the long-delayed US peace plan, with the declared aim of achieving Palestinian prosperity. Dubbed “Peace for Prosperity”, the conference is expected to bring together leaders from several governments, civil society, and the business sector. Trump’s office said the conference was a “pivotal opportunity... to share ideas, discuss strategies, and galvanize support for potential economic investments and initiatives that could be made possible by a peace agreement”.

Trump has touted the plan as the “deal of the century”. “This will give hopefully the people in the region the potential to see what the economic opportunities could be if we can work out political issues that have held back the region for a long, long time,” the senior Trump official said.