Jordan and Egypt say will attend U.S.-led Mideast peace meeting

Jordan and Egypt said on Saturday that they will send officials from their finance ministries to take part in an economic conference in Bahrain on a U.S.-led Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. 

Egypt's foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez told journalists that Cairo will send a delegation headed by a deputy finance minister to the meeting – due to take place in Manama on 25 and 26 June – without specifying the name.

In Jordan, foreign ministry spokesman Sufyan al-Qudah confirmed to journalists that his country will dispatch the secretary general to the finance ministry, again without giving a name. Qudah insisted however that "no economic proposal could replace a political solution that ends the occupation" of Palestinian territories by Israel.

The White House said on 12 June that Egypt, Morocco and Jordan have agreed to attend the workshop. But Jordan and Egypt – the only Arab countries to have signed peace deals with Israel – did not immediately confirm they would take part in the Bahrain meeting. Morocco has not yet confirmed its intentions.

The Palestinian Authority is boycotting the two-day conference – dubbed the Peace to Prosperity Workshop – charging that pro-Israel U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to buy the Palestinians and deprive them of an independent state.

The U.S. said on Saturday that its Middle East peace plan aims to raise more than $50 billion for the Palestinians and create one million jobs for them.

In a move likely to deepen its rift with the Palestinians, the White House said that money would be administered by a multinational development bank – not the Palestinian Authority – as a way to ensure better governance and prevent corruption.    (AFP)