President Mahmoud Abbas affirmed that Palestinian national rights are not traded for money.

During a press conference with his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Piñera at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas stated:

“The Palestinian national rights are not real estate that are traded for money.”

Abbas slammed during the press conference the recent US-sponsored ‘Peace to Prosperity’ workshop, that was convened on June 25-26 in Bahrain’s capital, Manama.

He explained:

“Any economic programs or projects must be preceded by reaching a political solution that will guarantee freedom, dignity, independence and justice to the Palestinian people since it could bring about stability and security for all.”

He added:

“That’s why Palestine did not attend that US-led workshop held two days ago in Manama.”

He reiterated that the US administration’s decisions removing the issues of Jerusalem, settlements, refugees and security off the negotiating table coupled with its punitive measures against the Palestinian people have proved that the US is no longer qualified to sponsor the peace process.

These decisions, he went on to say, have emboldened the Israeli occupation government to consider Jerusalem as Israel’s ‘unified capital’, annex Syria’s Golan Heights and threaten to annex Area C, which accounts for 60 percent of the West Bank.

He expressed his willingness to deal with a multilateral mechanism for sponsoring future Palestinian-Israeli talks, proceeding with Palestinian state-building and empowering the Palestinian economy, and raised the possibility that Chile could play a key role in this mechanism.

(Wafa, PC, Social Media)