Nablus – Ma‘an – The Palestinian minister of information and formal spokesperson of the government, Dr Mustafa Barghouthi, said on Saturday that the American initiative is "very dangerous", and "does not meet the minimum hopes of the Palestinian people... The proposal does not include one single word in reference to lifting the economic siege imposed on the Palestinian people".
During a meeting marking the occasion of World Press Freedom Day at An-Najah National University, Dr Barghouthi stated that "the US administration asks the Palestinians to stop resisting the occupation, in exchange for the removal of military checkpoints, which are scattered here and there, and Israel already started gesturing that they will refuse this initiative, in order to create an atmosphere of negotiations over an originally pointless initiative".
Dr Barghouthi revealed that the US proposal neglected the Palestinian government, and referred only to the presidential guards, "in an attempt to set a crack between the government and the presidency".
He explained that the Palestinian unity government represents 96% of Palestinian voters, and that it showed a great deal of flexibility to pave the way for lifting the siege imposed on it. "In the case that this government is toppled, there will be no other government having the same Palestinian unanimity… We will not go for early elections, and neglect the challenge to break the siege imposed on the Palestinian people."