RAMALLAH, Wednesday, February 13, 2019 (WAFA) – The US-sponsored meeting in Warsaw between 13 and 14 February fails to meet requirements of serious diplomacy, Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

"The upcoming meeting in Warsaw embodies the irresponsible power politics that the current US administration is attempting to impose on the international community,” she said. “Rather than leading a constructive and responsible global engagement based on international law and equality, this administration prefers the dynamic of unilateralism, coercion and hostility that will entrench conflicts rather than resolve them.’

Ashrawi stressed that the Palestinian leadership has a duty to protect its people‘s rights and represent their interests, which are under systematic assault by the US administration.

“Palestine will not provide cover to warmongering or legitimize efforts to market an Israeli-centric fake solution that normalizes Arab-Israeli relations at the expense of Palestinian rights. The US administration is seeking Arab funding for a politically and morally bankrupt ‘economic peace‘ that denies the Palestinian people‘s rights to national sovereignty, including in Jerusalem, and negates the rights of Palestine refugees,” added the PLO official.

“For decades, the Palestinian leadership has worked with the international community to achieve a just, legal, dignified and lasting peace in the region. We remain firmly committed to reaching a peacefully negotiated agreement that achieves our people‘s inalienable and non-negotiable rights, foremost amongst which is our right to self-determination and freedom,” she said.

“Diplomacy and conflict resolution require brokers to be even-handed and to command respect by acting with honesty and integrity. Yet, the Warsaw meeting seeks to reward Israeli belligerence by enhancing regional polarization to the benefit of Israeli hegemony at the expense of prospects for real peace. In this context, we reaffirm that peace in the region is possible only by safeguarding and enacting the Palestinian people‘s rights,” said Ashrawi, calling on international actors “demonstrate leadership and insist on justice and legality and the global rule of law.”

She said: “The American paradigm, as it stands, offers neither peace nor security but threatens to further aggravate an already volatile and unstable region. Achieving justice in Palestine remains the key to regional peace and security."

M.K.